Best in show
LOS ANGELES – Over the course of 10 weeks, Arizona bested Washington by a single game for the Pacific-10 Conference regular-season title. Then, in just one afternoon, the Huskies turned the tables.
The conference’s second-place team in the regular season was its best in the conference tournament, making a late-game surge Saturday to defeat top seed Arizona 81-72 and walk away from the Staples Center with a trophy in hand and the nets in tow.
Washington (27-5) went on a 17-2 run in the last 5 minutes as the Huskies’ edge on the glass – 17 offensive rebounds – got them enough buckets to beat back the Wildcats (27-6).
“We were able to work our tails off and play with a sense of urgency that just wouldn’t let us lose today,” Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said, “and I think that’s the only way we could have gotten it done.”
The most pressing need down the stretch was to stop Salim Stoudamire, named the tournament’s most outstanding player after scoring 37 points in the title game – 23 in the first half alone. But Arizona’s senior guard did all of his damage in the game’s first 35 minutes, going scoreless from there as his team stood to the side hoping for Stoudamire to make a play.
The loss may have cost Arizona a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
“This is just a bump in the road,” Arizona head coach Lute Olson said as the Huskies were still emptying from the court after their postgame celebration. “We just need to take from this what will help us be a better team on Thursday and not dwell on it. But on the other hand, we have to understand that you can’t just come out and let somebody outhustle you the way they did. They were much, much quicker to the ball than we were.”
Stoudamire, the Pac-10’s top shooter, was the story up until the last minutes. He first found his stroke in the first half with Washington’s Will Conroy on the bench, and after the game, Conroy compared his frustration watching Stoudamire to seeing a criminal released from prison.
“As soon as he gets out, he just goes on a rampage,” Conroy said. “By the time the police (are) looking for him again, it’s too late. By that time, he’s in the 20s, (and) man, it’s hard to slow him down when the rim looks like an ocean.”
By game’s end, though, Conroy had managed to stop the Wildcats’ star in his tracks. Most notably, Stoudamire stumbled and lost the ball out of bounds, possibly because of contact, with 46 seconds left and his team down by three.
“I didn’t want him to get the ball,” Conroy said. “At the 5-minute mark he had 37 points and he finished with 37. I said he’s been busting our tails for 35 minutes, I’ve got to shut him down for at least the last five minutes.”
The Huskies also needed some slick shooting, and at first it appeared that wouldn’t happen. Washington missed its first 12 3-point attempts, all in the first half. After that the Huskies shot 8 of 15 from long range, but more important, they started to get better looks around the bucket.
“We got a couple of plays inside,” UW guard Nate Robinson said. “We just kept going inside-out and then Tre (Simmons) hit a 3, Will hit two 3s. It was a snowball effect. We caught fire.”
Simmons and Robinson both had 18 points to lead the Huskies to their first Pac-10 tournament title. Jamaal Williams added 16 points off the bench, a place where Olson had suggested Arizona might have an advantage. The Wildcats bench scored five points.
Washington, while not a realistic contender for a top seed in the NCAA tournament when the brackets are announced today, could have played itself into a No. 2 seed. At the least, the Huskies had the satisfaction of winning the rubber match between the Pac-10’s two best teams when it mattered most.
“We are not the biggest team in the world, but all year long we’ve stayed together and played together,” Romar said. “I think we definitely have made a case for ourselves to have very close to a top seed.”
Notes
Arizona’s Salim Stoudamire set a Pac-10 career record with 329 3-pointers. … UW’s Nate Robinson and Tre Simmons, Arizona’s Channing Frye, and Stanford’s Matt Haryasz and Chris Hernandez were named to the all-tournament team.
(14) Washington 81, (8) Arizona 72
Washington (27-5)–Jones 0-1 2-2 2, Jensen 1-3 3-4 5, Simmons 7-14 2-3 18, Robinson 5-16 6-6 18, Conroy 4-13 0-0 12, Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Roy 2-4 0-0 4, Rollins 2-2 2-2 6, Williams 7-9 2-2 16. Totals 28-63 17-19 81.
Arizona (27-6)–Radenovic 4-6 1-2 9, Frye 6-11 2-2 14, Shakur 1-7 0-0 2, Stoudamire 12-20 6-6 37, Adams 2-7 0-0 5, McClellan 1-6 2-2 5, Rodgers 0-0 0-0 0, Verdejo 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-57 11-12 72.
Halftime–Arizona 41, Washington 33. 3-point goals–Washington 8-27 (Conroy 4-10, Simmons 2-6, Robinson 2-8, Jensen 0-1, Jones 0-1, Smith 0-1), Arizona 9-21 (Stoudamire 7-13, Adams 1-1, McClellan 1-3, Frye 0-1, Radenovic 0-1, Shakur 0-2). Fouled out–Adams. Rebounds–Washington 34 (Simmons 9), Arizona 26 (Frye 6). Assists–Washington 16 (Conroy, Robinson, Simmons 4), Arizona 13 (McClellan, Shakur 3). Total fouls–Washington 15, Arizona 17. A–18,672.