SEATTLE “”mdash; If there were any doubts about his preparation and readiness for a game packed with emotion and ripe with potential distraction, Washington senior forward Quincy Pondexter dispelled them on his first shot of the game.
Playing in his final game at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, with the ESPN College GameDay crew on campus, Pondexter made sure to leave a lasting impression, scoring a game-high 20 points in Washington’s 97-68 humiliation of UCLA before a crowd of 10,000 on Saturday night.
Before the game, Pondexter fought to hold back tears as he was introduced, along with his sister and both of his parents, in a special senior-day ceremony.
“It was definitely tears of joy,” Pondexter said. “To see my mother, father, brother and sister that have supported me so much through thick and thin, bad times and good times out here, as well as the whole Hec Ed gym. This has been a blessing to be in the position I’m in right now.”
After UCLA senior forward Nikola Dragovic missed badly on the game’s opening possession, Pondexter gave Washington the early lead with a 3-pointer that began a stretch in which he scored 10 of the Huskies’ first 12 points.
The onslaught put the Bruins in a 12-4 hole they never could recover from.
“We played good defense, got down the shot clock, and Quincy just hit a three. And from that point on, the crowd was in it, and they were just making shots,” said senior guard Michael Roll, who finished with six points.
Yet Pondexter was just one part of a Washington offense that gashed the Bruins’ zone defense to the tune of 97 points on 59.3 percent shooting. Another significant contributor was sophomore guard Isaiah Thomas, who scored 17 points on 50 percent (7-of-14) shooting.
Most notable about Thomas’ performance was his shooting from beyond the arc. Coming into the game, Thomas had made a mere 27.6 percent (21-of-76) of 3-pointers in Pac-10 games, yet on Saturday he made three crucial ones that proved to be back-breakers for the Bruins.
In the middle of the first half, Thomas made three 3-pointers in a row, turning a 13-point Washington advantage into a 21-point lead.
Thomas’ three 3-pointers were part of the 11 the Huskies made on Saturday night.
“When you play zone you’re going to give up the long ball,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said.
Lane draws praise from
Howland
On a night in which the Bruins set record lows, there was not much praise to be thrown around about UCLA’s dreadful performance against Washington.
There was the meager 17.6 shooting percentage (3-of-17) from 3-point territory.
There was the Bruins getting out-rebounded by the Huskies by a 33-23 margin.
There were the missed free throws that prevented the Bruins from taking full advantage of early Washington turnovers that might have saved the national embarrassment.
Yet through all the negatives that surrounded UCLA on Saturday night, freshman forward Brendan Lane’s career-high 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting stood out to Howland.
“I thought that he was the one guy particular that played well for us,” Howland said.
Honeycutt plays in front of
family
The national spotlight brought to the game by ESPN’s College GameDay was not the only source of additional external pressure placed on freshman forward Tyler Honeycutt.
On Saturday night, there were more than 20 family members and friends in the stands at Hec Edmundson Pavilion to watch Honeycutt play. Honeycutt’s mother was born in the Seattle area, and there were other members of the Honeycutt family who still lived in the area.
Unfortunately for Honeycutt, his four points, four rebounds, four assists and four turnovers were not the numbers he wished to put up. However, he emphasized how important their presence was.
“That’s the only thing that’s really keeping me excited about the rest of the day,” he said. “That they’re all out there, all 23 of them.”