SEATTLE – It was a sight Ken Bone was all too familiar with: The Washington men’s basketball team racing up and down the floor, scoring nearly at will, playing aggressive defense and putting a lesser opponent away quickly.
Unfortunately for Bone, this time he was on the unhappy end of things.
The former University of Washington assistant coach brought his Portland State Vikings to Hec Edmundson Pavilion Saturday and the memories didn’t take long to flood back for the Seattle native. He watched as Washington went on a 15-point run over a 3-minute, 42-second stretch early in the first half and the Huskies rolled to a 105-73 victory in front of a reported sold-out crowd that wasn’t quite that big.
The win, the most lopsided of the season for the UW, allows No. 17 Washington (8-1) to regain a bit of the momentum it lost with last week’s loss to Gonzaga as the Huskies prepare for a huge test on Wednesday when LSU comes to Hec Ed.
Portland State had won three in a row and six of seven coming into the game but was clearly outmatched athletically from the opening tip. The Huskies scored inside, outside, on the fast break and with 3-pointers. Overall, Washington shot a season-best 59.7 percent and made 9 of 18 threes in scoring its most points since it put up 112 on Nov. 25, 2005 against Loyola Marymount. It was also the most one-sided win since Washington beat Oregon State by 33 on Feb. 18.
“In my mind, they are bigger, stronger and better,” said Bone, a longtime head coach at Seattle Pacific now in his second season at PSU. “We were undersized but I am disappointed that we didn’t execute better. We needed to be a little more disciplined defensively.”
Speaking of defense, Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said Saturday’s effort was his team’s best defensive game of the season. The Huskies held the Vikings to 35.8 percent shooting and outrebounded Portland State 44-26.
“Tonight was what we have been wanting to see in our previous eight games,” Romar said. “Forty minutes of the type of Husky basketball that we are working toward playing. Our defensive effort was the best that it’s been all year. That was the catalyst for everything else we did tonight.”
Leading the defensive effort was 7-foot freshman center Spencer Hawes, who had five blocks to go with 16 points, including 7-for-8 from the field. Hawes has 24 blocks, two short of Brandon Roy’s team-leading total of last year.
“(Coaches) have been emphasizing, ‘Don’t drift out so much to the perimeter, your main responsibility is to protect the hoop,’” Hawes said. “Tonight I took that more to heart and did a better job of that.”
Five Washington players scored in double figures, led by the 18 points and career-high nine rebounds of Justin Dentmon. Quincy Pondexter had 16 points, Ryan Appleby had 15 and Brandon Burmeister scored 11. Two other players – Jon Brockman and Phil Nelson – scored nine apiece.
Washington was hot from the start, making four of its first five 3-pointers and 12 of its first 19 shots overall. Hawes, in particular, was on his game early, making all five of his first-half shots in scoring 12 of his points before halftime. Seven of those points came in an 18-3 run that allowed the Huskies to lead 21-8. The run grew to 30-10 with two Hawes jumpers and a Pondexter lay-up, and the Huskies led 48-35 at the half.
Despite the balanced offense, Dentmon agreed with Romar that the key was defense, and said if the Huskies play with that much intensity against LSU, they should be successful.
“This is our best defensive effort all year as far as working hard throughout the game,” Dentmon said. “We had some mental breakdowns but we picked it up and got through it.”
Former Snohomish star Ryan Sommer led Portland State with 14 points and six assists.
Note: Washington freshman guard Adrian Oliver suffered a mild concussion and was limited to 11 minutes. Romar said Oliver will be OK with a day of rest.
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