Saturday, January 13, 2007

Huskies Fall To Bears

It's beginning to look pretty obvious that despite the overall talent on the team this edition of the Huskies are probably going to be home in March. The Huskies simply have not put together a complete game since LSU visited last month. Simply put the Huskies are losing because they are sloppy, and Romar has not been able to find an answer to it.

Ayinde Ubaka scored six of his 13 points in overtime and Ryan Anderson added 18 points and 14 rebounds to lead California to a 77-69 victory over Washington on Saturday. The Golden Bears pulled away in the extra session after Washington's Justin Dentmon could only make one of two free throws with 0.2 seconds left in regulation with a chance to give the Huskies their first road win of the season.

Ubaka hit a jumper on the first possession of overtime and then scored off a perfect backdoor pass from Omar Wilkes to make it 71-67. Washington (11-6, 1-5) turned the ball over on its first three possessions of the extra session and never threatened after that.

Ryan Anderson extended the lead to six when he rebounded an airball by Theo Robertson and hit a jumper as the shot clock was winding down. After another Huskies miss, Ubaka hit one of two free throws to make it 74-67 with 57.7 seconds left.

Spencer Hawes ended Washington's overtime drought with a hook shot with 47.6 seconds remaining, but the Bears iced it at the foul line and the Huskies didn't score again.
Hawes led the Huskies with 13 points, Dentmon added 12 and Jon Brockman and Ryan Appleby had 11 apiece. After starting the season 10-1, Washington has struggled in Pac-10 play. The Huskies were swept in the Bay Area by Cal and Stanford after opening the conference season with losses in Los Angeles to USC, and UCLA.

Crunch time is crunched time for 2006-2007 Husky Squad. They have great talent, but when is Romar going to be able to extract some poise? This team lacks poise, and concentration in the lat two minutes ,and it has cost them three games in the last two weeks.

Other Pac Ten Action

Arron Afflalo got UCLA's last shot. And with the game in his hands, he came through. Afflalo hit a go-ahead 15-foot jumper with 4 seconds left, Darren Collison scored a career-high 17 points and UCLA rallied in the final 4½ minutes to beat crosstown rival Southern California 65-64 Saturday.

Oregon State cruised by ASU 67-59. Both teams desperately wanted this game. They came in as the only remaining winless Pac-10 teams. Now only the Sun Devils (6-11, 0-6) can claim that distinction.

Washington State had its defense aligned the way it wanted. Stanford had the ball in the hands of its hottest shooter. Anthony Goods hit a long 3-pointer with 3.3 seconds left and matched his career high with 30 points, lifting Stanford to a thrilling 71-68 overtime victory over Washington State on Saturday.

Oregon plays Arizona on Sunday in the conference showcase game of the week.

2 comments:

hairofthedawg said...

I certainly didn't see the Pac-10 being this good top to bottom this year. Not a good year to have a young team, especially when the experience you do have aren't key players. Going into the season I expected better than this and even more so after the LSU game. Oh well...

They do fight, but for some reason just don't have the killer instinct yet. There's a lot of season left, and while I didn't expect to rely on Hawes quite so much, it will be nice to have him at full strength again soon. Pondexter's ankle is also a concern but hopefully it's not serious.

I'm crossing my fingers everything comes together by tourney time. We'll probably need to win it to dance.

John Berkowitz said...

Ithought the Pac Ten would be good, but didn't expect UW to be fighting for a spot in the middle. I really thought they could solve their problems on the outside. Joel Smith is a big missing piece. He could swing out and take a lot of pressure off Dentman on defense. Apples is way too slow to be any more than a role player.

I have seen Romar put the pieces together against all odd's before, but it is really going to be a challenge for them to make the dance.

This team is missing one piece, and that is a playmaker on the outside who elevates everyone else's game.