ASU’s Blakes pops off and goes off

Slowed by foul trouble most of the first half, the last thing Arizona State’s Gerry Blakes needed was to pick up a silly, pointless technical foul – his third foul of the game – before halftime.

“Just being silly, uncharacteristic. I got a little emotional, said some things, said a thing,” Blakes said. “It was just out of the emotion of the game I said something.”

Blakes more than made up for his moment of immaturity in the second half.

Blakes scored 23 points, including nine straight late in the second half, and Arizona State won on the road for just the second time this season, beating Washington 78-68 on Sunday afternoon in Seattle.

Blakes scored 16 of 20 points for Arizona State during one stretch of the second half as the Sun Devils outscored Washington 23-8 over the final 7:45 of the game and won away from home for the first time since routing California on Jan. 22.

“He refocused. He knew he didn’t do the right thing,” Arizona State coach Herb Sendek said. “He was certainly big for us in the second half. You can see Gerry getting better and better. He’s at such a different place than he was when we started conference play.”

Savon Goodman added 19 points and 13 rebounds, including seven offensive boards. Shaquielle McKissic added 16 points. The Sun Devils snapped an eight-game losing streak against the Huskies.

Washington dropped its seventh straight game, the longest losing streak of coach Lorenzo Romar’s tenure. Nigel Williams-Goss led Washington with 20 points.

Andrew Andrews added 19 for the Huskies, who have not won since beating Colorado on Jan. 22.

With the Huskies off until next Sunday, Romar is giving his team two days off to figure out what to make of this season.

“With three weeks left, five games left on our schedule, we have to make sure we can find where that hope is,” Romar said. “I’ve been in this situation and the teams we’ve had a couple of times like this in rebuilding situations they’ve stuck it out. They’ve always gotten better.”

The Huskies were poised to snap the losing skid after withstanding one Arizona State run in the second half. The Sun Devils scored 10 straight to take a 44-40 lead with 12:46 left.

Andrews suddenly got hot and shot the Huskies back in front, including consecutive 3-pointers and a driving layup. Darin Johnson converted a three-point play, scoring in transition and Williams-Goss added a three-point play of his own with 7:42 left to give the Huskies a 60-55 lead.

(11) Utah 76, California 61: Jakob Poeltl had 18 points and eight rebounds and the Utes beat the Golden Bears in Salt Lake City for their 17th straight home victory.

Trailing 32-26 with five minutes left before halftime, Utah closed the half on a 14-2 run and didn’t trail after the break.

Delon Wright added 16 points for the Utes while Tyrone Wallace had 26 points and Jabari Bird 21 for Cal.

Colorado 64, Stanford 58: At Boulder, Colorado, Askia Booker scored 17 points and his only bucket of the second half was a 3-point dagger that helped the Buffaloes top the Cardinal.

Stefan Nastic scored 24 points for Stanford.