UW blasts EWU before tiny crowd

SEATTLE – Rugged star Jon Brockman revived after a slow start to score 17 points and lead Washington easily past Eastern Washington 83-50 on Saturday night in a men’s non-conference scrimmage-like setting before a tiny crowd reduced by a snowstorm.

Brockman missed five of his first six shots, and the nation’s leading returning rebounder had a season-low five boards. But he scored 12 points in the second half, padding a rout that had started midway through the first half.

Isaiah Thomas and Justin Dentmon added 13 points each for Washington (7-3), which has won five consecutive games against lightly regarded competition.

Chris Busch scored 13 points for the Eagles (6-5), who lost for the third consecutive time.

Eastern Washington had injured leading scorer Benny Valentine on the bench for the entire first half two nights after collapsing late in losing at home to Missouri-Kansas City.

Valentine, a transfer from Texas Tech who was averaging 16.8 points per game, was hobbling and wincing with an apparent injury to his left leg while starting the second half. EWU was down 42-22 by then.

The Eagles, picked to finish seventh in the Big Sky Conference this season, briefly led in the first half and were tied at 15 on a pull-up jumper by Trey Gross midway through the period.

But then EWU missed 10 of its next 11 shots – three of them in the lane – and had three turnovers, including a shot-clock violation and throwing a bounce pass out of bounds.

Washington capitalized by scoring 21 of the game’s next 24 points. The decisive run ended with a 3-pointer by Dentmon, two free throws by Thomas and a basket inside by Dentmon.

The Huskies were up 36-18 with 3 minutes left in the opening half, and that was that.

The game had the feel of an open workout, as the storm conspired with Washington students’ winter break and holiday activities to keep the actual crowd to maybe 1,500.