UW uses second chances en route to victory

The road is never easy, but if you get enough second chances, you're bound to succeed. Washington outscored Oregon 26-4 in second-chance situations, fueled by the tenacious play of their seniors and a couple of noteable frosh, as they defeated the Ducks 75-72 in Eugene Thursday night. The win also erases a three-game conference road losing skid.

With the victory, coupled with Arizona's loss at California, Washington moved up to solo fourth in the current Pac-10 standings behind UCLA, Cal and Stanford. They are also poised to pull off a season sweep of the Oregon schools with a win Saturday over Oregon State, the first time that has happened since 1998.

Brandon Roy scored 21 and Jamaal Williams 17 for the Huskies (19-5, 8-5), but it was the second-half performance by frosh forward Jon Brockman and frosh guard Justin Dentmon that helped seal the game up for Washington. But it was the Huskies 36-17 domination of the boards, including a whopping 19-4 advantage offensively, that spelled the difference in the game. Because of the discrepancy on the glass, Washington was able rack up a number of easy second-chance looks, most of them put down by Brockman and Williams, who each had four offensive rebounds. Brockman, in particular, had a big tip-in with 42 seconds left in the game to give Washington a 72-70 lead. It was part of a 12-point second half for the big man from Snohomish.

"Our guys stepped up down the stretch," said Washington Head Coach Lorenzo Romar. Jon Brockman was a beast in the second half. Justin Dentmon made some great plays down the stretch as far as making defensive stops and hitting some big free throws. It was nice to see our freshmen step up on the road like that."

"They just kept pounding the boards, they have the size and athleticism to get in there and get the rebounds almost every time," added Oregon Head Coach Ernie Kent. "They are one of the best rebounding teams in the conference, and that is because of their size."

"It's hard to rebound on a zone team, they were coming hard and we didn't do a good job of getting a body on our man," said Oregon guard Chamberlain Oguchi, who led all scorers for the Ducks with 21 points.

Besides the 21 of Oguchi, Oregon (11-15, 5-9) got 18 from Malik Hairston and 12 by Ivan Johnson, mostly on thunderous dunks after sweet feeds. But it was the fifth foul called on Hairston, on a drive to the baseline as Dentmon was guarding him, that proved pivotal.

"Absolutely nothing happened, but the ref made the call," Hairston said of the play. "We still had more basketball to play and unfortunately we just didn't win the game."

The Huskies, up two at that time, were able to cleanly in-bounds the ball, and chewed up some time while Oregon figured out who they wanted to foul. They decided on Dentmon, who normally is a very strong shooter from the charity stripe, but the Ducks wanted to test his mettle against a hostile McArthur Court crowd, one that became incensed time and time again when borderline calls would go in Washington's direction.

The frosh cooly put both down to give the Huskies a four-point cushion with 22.8 seconds left. Jordan Kent, son of UO Head Coach Ernie, scores on a layin and they foul Dentmon again. This time Dentmon was only able to make one, but it gave them the same scenario they had at Stanford and last Saturday against UCLA; up three, but the other team got the last shot. At Stanford Dentmon made the classic freshman gaffe - he fouled a three-point shooter. In the last two games, he's been nothing but nails.

"Our freshmen played great," said Roy - who earned Pac-10 Player of the Week honors last week in helping the Huskies to wins over USC and UCLA. "They're just growing up every day. We don't look at them as freshmen anymore."

"We were very confident," added Dentmon. "Coach said it comes down to who wants it the most and we still had some fight in us."

With Oguchi hitting threes from everywhere, you would have expected the Ducks to find him deep, but Maarty Leunen found himself with the ball and with time drawing down. He took the three and it slid off the right-side of the rim, ensuring Washington's precious road victory.

"Rebounding took the game from us more than not being able to close out the last minute," said Kent.

"I thought we did a great job of limiting our turnovers, when you get out-rebounded like we did (36-17) and give up 19 offensive rebounds, it's amazing it was only a three-point gam. That is a testament to the fact that we did some other things well."

The game was a back-and-forth affair, with neither team ever putting together a double-digit advantage over the other. Washington's biggest lead came at 14:31 of the second half, after a Roy offensive rebound and tip-in. Oregon had a five point lead at 63-58 with 8:15 left in the game after two free throws from Seattle native Aaron Brooks.

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Statistics:
Points: Roy 21, Williams 17, Brockman 14, Appleby 9, Jones 7, Dentmon 5, Jensen 2
Rebounds: Brockman 7, Williams 7, TEAM 6, Jones 5, Roy 4, Dentmon 3, Smith 3, Jensen 1
Assists: Roy 4, Williams 3, Jones 1, Jensen 1, Dentmon 1, Appleby 1
Steals: Smith 2, Jones 1, Roy 1, Dentmon 1, Williams 1
Blocks: Roy 1