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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Washington basketball players take exception to WSU fans storming court

Scott M. Johnson Everett Herald

SEATTLE – Sunday night’s loss to Washington State was a hard pill for Darnell Gant to swallow.

But it was what followed that game that really had the junior on the Washington men’s basketball team seething.

On Tuesday, Gant was among the UW players that took exception with the on-court celebration of the WSU students and fans after the Cougars’ 87-80 win.

“The thing that bothered me the most was the things they did afterward,” Gant said, “with the crowd storming the court and stuff like that.”

And he wasn’t the only one.

“It’s January,” UW senior forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning said Tuesday. “We’ve still got half the Pac-10 season to go, so that’s why it got to us. I won’t let us forget about it by the time we play (WSU) again (on Feb. 27).”

Sunday’s game also included some expected teasing from the WSU crowd. The students tapped into the ongoing investigation into the claims of sexual assault by a 16-year-old girl against a UW player and chanted: “No means no!”

UW coach Lorenzo Romar was asked Tuesday about that chant and downplayed its significance.

“I’ve heard worse,” he said. UW junior Isaiah Thomas said the chant was “pretty good. I was surprised by how good it was. But that was their crowd. (On) Feb. 27, our crowd will be coming up with something.

“I told my guys in the locker room: ‘Just remember that, because you don’t win championships in January,’ ” Thomas said Tuesday. “But they thought it was a big win, and it was for them; it was a survival game. You can’t blame them, but I think we would have done it different.”