Thomas sizzles in UW debut

SEATTLE – Isaiah Thomas didn’t disappoint in his much-anticipated Washington debut, scoring 27 points as the Huskies ran past Western Washington 105-85 in an exhibition basketball game Thursday night.

Justin Dentmon scored 18 points and Jon Brockman added 14 points and 18 rebounds for Washington, which is vowing to return to its running, pressing ways of earlier this decade. The Huskies have missed the last two NCAA tournaments.

Michael Duty scored 17 points for Division II Western Washington.

Thomas is the teen scoring and passing whiz from Tacoma who was the Class 4A player of the year as a junior at Curtis High School and once averaged 41.5 points per game in the Washington state tournament. He wowed the crowd by relentlessly pushing the ball past the overwhelmed Vikings. He made 9 of 12 shots – his only misses were from 3-point range – while showing off stutter-step dribbles and wraparound drives.

But he also showed reminders that this was his first collegiate game, after spending the last two years at South Kent School, a prep school in Connecticut.

Midway through the first half, the 5-foot-8 guard drove the length of the court and slashed through two defenders for a scooping, floating basket in the lane. Then on his next offensive possession, Thomas recklessly dribbled too long into his only turnover of the opening half.

Brockman, Thomas, Dentmon, Quincy Pondexter (13 points) plus redshirt freshman Darnell Gant (four points) started for UW, which is picked to finish fifth in the Pac-10.