In the end, it’s Huskies who finish

SEATTLE – Eastern Washington gave 16th-ranked Washington everything it could handle but it’s obvious where the Eagles fell short in a 90-83 men’s basketball loss at Bank of America Arena Friday night.

The Eagles couldn’t finish.

Washington rushed an 11-0 spurt in the final 3 minutes of the first half, capped by Adrian Oliver’s half-court buzzer beater, to cut a big Eastern lead to 47-46 and closed the game with a 15-6 run over the last 5 minutes.

“They went into halftime with the momentum, hitting that half-court shot,” Eastern guard Omar Krayem said. “We regrouped and I felt like as team we gave good effort. Basketball is a game of runs and they made the last run.”

It was the 11th straight home win before an announced, but definitely not, sellout crowd of 10,000 and 44th in 46 games for the Huskies (5-0) and four straight over the Eagles (2-3).

“We missed a couple of layins and had some opportunities,” Eagles coach Mike Burns said. “It is little things that we need to shore up. If we close out both halves, we win this game. It also speaks to the quality of our opponent. They are the 16th-ranked team in the country and they are used to winning games in this building.”

There were two other crucial elements in the game that had 16 lead changes and 13 ties.

Eastern star Rodney Stuckey only had 10 of his game-high 31 points in the second half and 6-foot-10 Eastern center Paul Butorac, who had 14 points, nine rebounds and three blocks, missed the last 4 ½ minutes of the first half and the first 5:17 of the second after taking an elbow from 7-foot Husky freshman Spencer Hawes.

“I turned and saw this big elbow coming at my face,” said Butorac, who needed 10 stitches to close three different cuts on his lower lip. “I bit through my lip.”

Stopping – or at least slowing down – Stuckey was a matter of perspective.

“Foul trouble, that was it,” Stuckey said. “When you get in foul trouble you have to be cautious. That really hurt us, me getting in foul trouble.”

The Huskies rotated Quincy Pondexter and Oliver, both freshmen, and sophomore Justin Dentmon on Stuckey.

“That was us,” said Dentmon, who had a career high 23, 19 in the second half, to lead UW. “We looked at each other and told everybody we have to bear down and stop him. He’s real good. The way he can create his own shot is crazy.”

“Dentmon was fantastic in the second half,” Burns said. “We didn’t have an answer for him.”

Stuckey picked up his third foul less than 4 minutes into the second half, when he had 26 points. He was out almost 4 minutes but the Eagles hung tough and his coast-to-coast sprint for a layup gave the Eagles a 65-62 lead with 9:40 left. His assist to Krayem, who finished with 18 points, put Eastern up 74-71 at 6:20, but shortly after that he picked up his fourth foul.

UW got six straight before Krayem hit his fourth 3-pointer at the 5-minute mark for the final Eastern lead, but from there the Huskies hit 13 of 16 free throws, mixed in with a Dentmon 3-pointer, to pull out the win.

“I thought we played really hard,” Stuckey said. “We just came up short basically. Offensive rebounds really hurt us this game. Missing crucial free throws at crucial times and stuff like that, but we are just going to get better.”

The Huskies had a 48-37 rebounding advantage, 17-11 in offensive boards, giving them 19 second-chance points. Oliver, who is 6-3, had a career-high 14 points and nine rebounds, best on the team. Overall the statistics were pretty even, although the Huskies had a 10-point edge from the foul line in the second half.

“I thought we played extremely hard,” Burns said. “Our effort gave us a good chance. For the most part we did a pretty good job of taking care of the ball and giving ourselves the opportunities for some open shots. In the first half we knocked a lot of those down (52 percent) but in the second half we were just an eyelash off on six or seven of those things (32 percent). If those would have gone down it would have been a different game.”

Washington 90, EWU 83

Eastern Washington (2-3)- Risper 1-2 2-2 4, Butorac 3-3 8-10 14, Krayem 6-16 2-4 18, Stuckey 11-25 6-6 31, Taylor 1-7 3-4 5, Hinton 2-4 0-0 4, Penoncello 0-4 0-0 0, Humphrey 0-0 0-0 0, Zumwalt 0-0 0-0 0, Williams 2-5 1-3 5, Moore 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 27-67 22-29 83.

Washington (5-0)- Pondexter 3-13 9-12 15, Brockman 4-7 3-5 11, Hawes 7-12 0-3 14, Dentmon 7-12 8-8 23, Appleby 1-5 0-0 3, Oliver 4-8 4-6 14, Burmeister 1-1 1-2 4, Wallace 0-3 0-0 0, Gasser 2-4 2-2 6, Nelson 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 29-67 27-38 90.

Halftime—Eastern Washington 47, Washington 46. 3-point goals—Eastern Washington 7-29 (Krayem 4-9, Stuckey 3-11, Hinton 0-1, Williams 0-2, Penoncello 0-3, Taylor 0-3), Washington 5-14 (Oliver 2-2, Burmeister 1-1, Dentmon 1-3, Appleby 1-4, Pondexter 0-2, Nelson 0-2). Fouled out—Dentmon, Krayem. Rebounds—Eastern Washington 37 (Butorac 9), Washington 48 (Oliver 9). Assists—Eastern Washington 10 (Stuckey 4), Washington 13 (Oliver 5). Total Fouls—Eastern Washington 30, Washington 23. A—10,000.