While Arizona’s Salim Stoudamire was making individual
history, the Washington Huskies were making team history.
Despite a tournament-high 37 points from the Wildcat
sharpshooter, No. 14 Washington was able to fend off No. 8 Arizona
to claim its first-ever Pac-10 Tournament title with an 81-72 upset
win at Staples Center on Saturday.
With the victory, the Huskies (27-5) earned the Pac-10’s
automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, though Arizona (27-6) will
also be headed to the tournament, which starts Thursday.
“I couldn’t be more excited for these guys to
experience being a champion in this tournament,” Huskies
coach Lorenzo Romar said.
In a nip-and-tuck contest for 40 minutes, it was the
Huskies’ smallest player ““ 5-foot-8 -inch Nate Robinson
““ who made the biggest impact in the game’s final
minutes. Robinson scored six points ““ his only points of the
second half ““ in the final 1:07 to help Washington pull away
from Arizona, who suffered its first defeat when reaching the
Pac-10 title game.
“One punch after another,” said Romar, whose team
delivered the final blow by outscoring the Wildcats 17-2 over the
final five minutes. “Arizona brings out the best in us
because for so long they have been the best.”
The Wildcats looked well on their way to once again claiming
they were the conference’s best team for most of
Saturday’s game, largely behind the brilliant individual
performance from Stoudamire.
The Arizona senior, who scored over half of his team’s
points, continually punished Washington defenders for leaving him
open, connecting on a tournament-record seven 3-pointers and
surpassing Arizona State’s Steve Smith as the Pac-10 career
leader in made 3-pointers with 329.
In the final 3:17 of the first half, Stoudamire captivated the
Staples Center crowd by railing off an amazing 17 straight points,
giving Arizona a 41-33 lead at halftime.
Yet while Stoudamire was on his game, Washington made it a point
to keep the rest of the Wildcats off theirs. After Stoudamire, the
only other Arizona player to score in double-digits was center
Channing Frye, who finished with 14 points. In comparison, four
Huskies tallied at least 12 points.
“I wanted to be the guy that everyone looks up to, but at
the same time, we got to stay within the team concept, and we got
away from that,” said Stoudamire, the first tournament MVP
from the runner-up team.
“You got to keep telling the other guys (Stoudamire)
doesn’t want to pass you the ball, and that’s what we
did,” said Robinson. “A couple whispers, … it kills
the other team’s confidence.”
Though Stoudamire had paced Arizona for the first 35 minutes of
Saturday’s game, he was unable to deliver in the final five,
going scoreless over that stretch. After Robinson fearlessly drove
into the lane and dropped in a twisting lay-up to give Washington a
75-72 lead with a little over a minute remaining, Stoudamire pushed
it right back at the Huskies, but tripped in front of his bench and
lost the ball out-of-bounds. While it appeared Stoudamire stumbled
when he stepped on the foot of a Washington defender, no whistle
was blown, essentially sealing the Wildcats’ fate.
While Stoudamire and Arizona coach Lute Olson thought a foul
should have been called, both believed the game’s outcome
shouldn’t have come down to a referee’s whistle.
Instead, they pointed to Washington’s 41-26 rebounding
advantage as the primary culprit for the loss.
“That call did not cost us the game, the boards is what
cost it for us and we need to correct it,” Olson said.
Arizona will be given a chance to rebound Thursday in the first
round of the NCAA Tournament.