Washington 78 USC 73
by John Berkowitz on Jan 23, 2009 7:13 AM PST
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PrintThe Huskies retired Brandon Roy's jersey last night and pulled out a hard fought 78-73 victory in front of a packed house last night at Hec Ed.
This was a terrific wire to wire game featuring the Trojans who went at the Huskies with a taller line up and a physical defense. Offensively the Trojans played in a half court offense most of the night trying to set up good shots. Washington on the other hand tried to create more off the run.
Jon Brockman was shut off offensively most of the night by USC's Taj Gibson but was dominating on the boards and on defense. Brockman went all night without scoring a field goal. Brockman hasn't been held without a FG since he was a freshman.
Justin Dentmon led the Huskies with 22. Justin was 3 for 4 from three point range last night and even had a sensational 4 point play. Isiaiah Thomas started slowly but warmed up in the second half scoring 16 of his 17 points. Quincy Pondexter kept in his recent groove scoring 11 points and supplying tough defense.Matthew Bryan-Amaning came off the bench and provided some quality minutes and 12 points. Venoy Overton made USC pay with a couple of key three point shots which electrified the crowd.
One player that really impressed me tonight was Justin Holiday. This kid does a lot of good things when he is in the game providing plenty of quality minutes. holiday and Gant are the unsung heroes of this team and have bright futures.
The Huskies forced 20 USC turnovers and hit a season-high 32 free throws in 40 attempts. It was the second straight game that UW hit over 80% from the charity stripe.
Next up for the Huskies is UCLA this Saturday.
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Holiday
Great player…the kind of guy you need if you want to make it far in the Big Dance!
UCLA
Beatable and would be a huge win for this young program.
Uhh...
“Hard fought?” “Terrific” game? The only thing good about the game was that the Huskies can win shooting 35% and turning the ball over almost 20 times. They won’t be beating UCLA that way.
Porter
Did you actually watch the game?
It was pretty entertaining.
UCLA will be a whole different game with completely different matchups.
UW and USC was always going to be a brawl.
USC
They were much taller than us at every position it seemed like.
It was a little sloppy in the first half (the only half i saw thus will talk about) but it UW still looked like the better team.
Our guards are HUGE- not in height but in performance
The Pac 10 has become a guard league and we’ve got 3 really good guards that play almost identical. Bring in Holiday and we’ve got a go-to defense stopper! Yet the key is still Q. He can’t fade production wise [see Cal game].
What I noticed is that our best player can finish the game with 4 points and we still win. That tells me we have others that can get the job done. We’ve got depth on the low post, depth on the perimeter, and we are playing good ball pressure defense.
If we beat Ucla, we are going to be a tough team to beat! Got to split the Ucla series and we must protect our home court.
John, I have a couple questions about the program's future.
First, I’ve noticed that Breshers has yet to play this season, so it’s pretty clear that he’s redshirting. Was it a situation where Romar sat down with him and they decided “Hey, the frontcourt is pretty crowded this year, so let’s not waste a year of your eligibility, let’s get you stronger and let you develop a little bit, and next year after Brockman graduates some minutes will open up for you”, or was it some other issue like an injury or something? I’m hoping it’s the first.
The second question is about Scott Suggs. It’s clear that at this point Romar prefers Elston Turner. With the two of them playing the same position and also competing with Isaiah Thomas and Venoy Overton for minutes (and with Gaddy coming in next year) it doesn’t seem like he has much of a spot on the team. Is there any worry about him transferring? It’d be a shame to lose a guy of his size (6-6) and talent (Mr. Show-Me Basketball).
Breshers and Suggs
Breshers- Just a matter of not healing from his injury in time for the start of the Pac 10 season.
Suggs- Scott was always a kid they figured on needing to build up some strength and stamina. He will be fine.
by John Berkowitz on Jan 23, 2009 6:49 PM PST up reply actions
Learn to close
is my best advise to the Huskies. Be like Justin, and IT is doing that except for his silly foul near the end. Both Cal and SC made great strides at the end of the game. Fortunately Dentmon is closing the way we thought he would when he returned after his frosh year.
Dentmon
I think Dentmon’s failures as a soph. and junior were due to pressure. You can also link Q to that as well. But as for Dentmon, he had the pressure of following Brandon Roy as a leader which would be rather difficult. Not to mention his role on the team was in question. Was he going to play the point or the shooting guard. From what I saw from Dentmon and the last two Husky teams is that he didn’t quite fit with the team, chemistry problems.
This year we are seing a huge differnce in his play and leadership qualities. Dentmon is the shooting quard who assists in handling the ball. But what I see different is that the pressure to be the next Brandon Roy is gone.
Question: Who does Justin Dentmon remind you of? To me he is the basketball version of Mario Bailey.
I think Ucla is going to have their hands full with the Huskies! WOOF!!!
Brockman
I’m glad you didn’t say he was “held” to 0 field goals because I can’t believe that he didn’t make that gimme layup/dunk at the end. I know Brock can get up, I can’t figure out why he didn’t two-hand shaq-attack it.
Good win and a fun game to watch. This Husky squad really looks like a team, and not a bunch of dude’s who play basketball together. When Romar can get his recruits to stick around, the Huskies look like contenders
Our leather lungs together...
Brocky
I think Brocky was defended very well in the first half and it continued in the 2nd half. I think what we witnessed with Brock not getting those late-game put back shots to fall was all in his head.
You go O for the night when you are expected to get 10 buckets a night, it starts playing with your head. I think that is what Brocky was experiencing late in the ball game. But we learned something from it didn’t we? We learned that our best player can be held to 4 points and no field goals to his credit and still find a way to win. The fellas stepped up when Brock was defended extremely tight.
Brocky- It's official and fits
John Brockman’s new nickname is “Brocky”. We can take it even further and call him Brocky Boboa- a spin off Rocky and Brockman’s sir name.
Anybody buying it? Go Brocky! WOOF!!!
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