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Huskies open NIT with victory

Washington’s Terrence Ross scores over Texas-Arlington’s Kevin Butler (24) and Brandon Edwards during the first half. (Associated Press)
Washington’s Terrence Ross scores over Texas-Arlington’s Kevin Butler (24) and Brandon Edwards during the first half. (Associated Press)

The few bodies left on the University of Washington bandwagon spilled into a half-empty Hec Edmundson Pavilion on Tuesday night and witnessed something akin to “Weekend at Bernie’s.”

And not just because UW’s National Invitational Tournament opener in Seattle at times looked like a bad comedy.

In a morbid way, the Huskies’ return to action in a national postseason game was a bit like propping up a corpse of a season for all to see.

And for more than 30 minutes, it looked like UW might finally be put out of its misery.

But in the end, the Huskies rewarded the 2,081 fans at Hec Ed by shaking off a pesky Texas-Arlington team 82-72 and extending what’s left of a mostly forgotten season.

UW (22-10) used a 19-6 run midway through the second half to escape the upstart Mavericks and move on to the second round of the NIT.

“We were able to get through it,” said coach Lorenzo Romar, whose Huskies will host Northwestern (19-13) on Friday night and need two more wins to make the trip to Madison Square Garden for the NIT semifinals.

Despite getting pounded on the boards (37-27), looking at times like they’d rather be watching the NCAA play-in games on television, and spending the first 10 minutes of the second half in a virtual deadlock, the Huskies finally got it together down the stretch. A Texas-Arlington team that spent a good part of Monday traveling simply ran out of gas in the end. The Mavericks (24-9) went almost five minutes without scoring a point while letting a 59-58 lead turn into a 77-65 deficit.

UW used a zone defense to limit UTA down the stretch.

Afterward, the Huskies seemed more relieved than anything to have escaped with a win.

 “We knew they weren’t going to give it away,” UW senior Darnell Gant said. “It’s desperation time. They weren’t going to roll over. They made us work for it.”

After a 37-all tie at halftime, UW looked to be pulling away several times in the opening minutes of the second half but couldn’t shake the Mavericks. When UTA’s Kevin Butler turned a Tony Wroten Jr. turnover into a fast-break layup with 9:51 remaining, the Huskies found themselves trailing 59-58.

But Terrence Ross, who finished with a team-high 23 points, got the UW offense on track again with a pair of 3-pointers on the way to a 68-65 lead with 7:07 remaining, and the Huskies pulled away from there.

Oregon 96, LSU 76: Devoe Joseph scored 25 points and the Ducks (23-9) beat the Tigers (18-15) in the first round at Eugene, Ore.

Garrett Sim also had 15 points and Tony Woods 14 for the Ducks, who will host Iowa in the second-round. E.J. Singler and Carlos Emory added 11 points each.

Stanford 76, Cleveland State 65: Aaron Bright scored all 17 of his points in the second half to lead the Cardinal (22-11) past the Vikings (22-11) in the first round at Stanford, Calif.