Huskies win ugly over Cal State Northridge

Dec 7, 2009, 12:00 AM

Sloppy and out-of-sync offensively, Washington looked more like a team suffering from a first-loss hangover than one set on redeeming itself last night against Cal State Northridge. That was about five minutes into the second half, the Huskies clinging to a one-point lead against another mid-major at home. But five minutes and an 18-2 run later, Washington was coasting to the easy victory most had assumed this would be. The Huskies overcame 20 turnovers and a relatively poor shooting night to pull away with a 88-76 win at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, recovering from Thursday's loss to Texas Tech with an inspired second-half effort. There may have been another game the Huskies were thinking about - the one they'll play against Georgetown in Anaheim, Calif., on Saturday. "Yes," senior Quincy Pondexter said when asked if he thought some players might have been overlooking last night's game. "We really want to redeem ourselves. We know we had this one, and then the next one is another heavyweight fight against Georgetown." Things looked like they were headed the way of UW's Nov. 29 game against Montana, when the Grizzlies led at halftime and took the Huskies all the way to the wire in an eventual 63-59 Washington win. It never got that close that late, but an 11-0 Cal State run early in the second half cut the Husky lead to 48-47 and had many in attendance wondering if Washington was still thinking about its overtime loss to Texas Tech three days prior. "It wasn't the best brand of basketball," Pondexter said. "It wasn't the prettiest game, but we got it done." They just never really got things going. UW used a quick 10-2 run just before halftime to take a 46-34 lead into the locker room, but fumbled through several turnovers to begin the second and was in danger of trailing for the first time since midway through the first half. "We didn't do a good job of finishing or taking care of the basketball," said UW head coach Lorenzo Romar. But when they were tested, the Huskies seemed to wake up. Pondexter and Scott Suggs both made three-pointers to jumpstart the game-deciding run, and sophomore guard Isaiah Thomas worked his way into the paint and started drawing contact. He led UW with 21 points, getting to the free-throw line 15 times and making 13 of them. Pondexter added 20, scoring 15 in the second half. But the Huskies were perhaps catalyzed most by the play of freshman Abdul Gaddy, who may have had his best game in a Washington uniform. He sparked the Huskies' first-half run with a couple of nice drives to the basket and finished with 11 points on 5-8 shooting. "You saw a glimpse of his potential," Pondexter said. "He's going to be terrific. He's going to be a professional basketball player after this level." Just one reason why Romar thinks the Huskies, regardless of performances like this one, can be one of the nation's best. But they need to fix some things first. "We're this close to being a really good basketball team," Romar said, holding his thumb about a half-inch from his index finger. "But that margin that I'm showing you here, if we don't get that soon, then we'll just be an OK team. Our mistakes are mistakes we can correct." They don't have long to do it.

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