Sports - Local Colleges - Washington

POSTED: Thursday, Nov. 05, 2009

Touted Huskies debut with share-the-wealth win over CWU

huskies hoops: Veterans lead, younger players follow in 77-48 UW victory over CWU

In their season debut Wednesday, the Washington Huskies flashed some of the reasons for their highest preseason ranking in almost a quarter century.

The 14th-ranked Huskies led wire-to-wire in a 77-48 exhibition win over Division II Central Washington before an announced crowd of 8,570 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

“I was pleasantly surprised at the energy that we came out with tonight, given the fact that it had been nine consecutive days that we practiced,” coach Lorenzo Romar said. “... For us to come out with the intensity that we did in spite of that, I was pleased.”

As promised, Romar started Isaiah Thomas, Venoy Overton, Quincy Pondexter, Darnell Gant and Matthew Bryan-Amaning.

And in their first test without seniors Jon Brockman and Justin Dentmon – key contributors to last season’s Pacific-10 Conference championship team – returning veterans led the way: 18 points from Thomas, 15 from Pondexter, 11 from Overton.

“With Brock out there, he was all over, elbowing people and getting rebounds,” Thomas said. “But we’ve gotten used to it in practice with him not being around. It’s a little bit different, but hopefully we’ll get back to it like when he was (here).”

Washington raced away from the visiting Wildcats almost instantly. And just as quickly, Romar started looking at his reserves.

Top recruit Abdul Gaddy, out of Bellarmine Prep, came off the bench for a game-high six assists.

“It was fun for me,” Gaddy said. “I was a little nervous at the beginning; that comes with it all. But it was fun out there, especially to come out with the win.”

Former Gig Harbor star Clarence Trent threw down a late thunderous dunk on a lob from fellow-freshman C.J. Wilcox. And redshirt freshman Tyreese Breshers had six points and three rebounds after sitting out last season with leg injuries.

“We all see what they bring to the table,” Pondexter said. “Abdul is a tremendous passer, well beyond his years of age. Clarence is a freak athlete, and he’ll only get better and better. C.J. is finding his way. It’s only a matter of time before he’ll be knocking down those 3s – he’s one of the best shooters I’ve ever seen. ... (Breshers) is just a load. He’s very similar to Jon Brockman. I think he’s going to have a bright future.”

Guard Noble’D Shelton of Auburn led CWU with 10 points.

Romar also used the evening to experiment with combinations. For a time in the second half, he had guards Thomas, Overton and Gaddy share the floor. He also got a look at a big lineup with Pondexter, Breshers, Bryan-Amaning along the front line.

After hitting 70 percent of their free throws last season, the Huskies hit only 18 of 37 tries (48.6 percent) Wednesday, a figure Romar said might have been due to tired legs.

The Huskies also shot only 38 percent from the floor; and Bryan-Amaning’s short-range shooting problems from last season continued, as he went 1-for-6. However he matched Gant with a game-high 10 rebounds.

All together, these Huskies showed some of the potential that has them ranked No. 14 in the Associated Press preseason poll. That is UW’s highest preseason ranking since the 1985-86 team opened at No. 8 and went on to win the conference title.

Last season, Washington peaked at No. 13 in the AP poll.

The Huskies open the regular season Nov. 13 against Wright State in the first game of the Athletes in Action Classic at Hec Ed.

Don Ruiz, 253-597-8808

don.ruiz@thenewstribune.com

blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports