Three games into the Pac-10 season, defending champion Washington
isn't impressing anyone.
Rihards Kuksiks matched his career high with 27 points and
Arizona State dominated the No. 24 Huskies from the start in a
67-51 victory Friday night.
Ty Abbott added 17 points for the Sun Devils (1-2 Pac-10,
11-5), who led by 11 in the first half and 19 in the second in the
Huskies' second Pac-10 loss in a row.
Trent Lockett had 11 points for Arizona State. The Sun Devils
had an 18-point advantage at the foul line, 30 of 37 to the
Huskies' 12 of 21.
Isaiah Thomas led Washington (10-4, 1-2) with 20 points.
Elston Turner was the only other Washington player in double
figures with 10 in by far the Huskies' lowest-scoring game of the
season.
"They played great defense," Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar
said. "We didn't have much going on the inside or outside. Kuksiks
did a phenomenal job and it gave them someone to go to
offensively."
Arizona State made 8 of 19 3-pointers, 5 of 8 by Kuksiks,
while Washington was 3 of 14.
"I just came out aggressive," Kuksiks said. "I got some open
looks and I made the first two. Then from that point on my
teammates did a good job of finding me and I just knocked my shots
down."
The Latvian's night included a rare and powerful dunk that
brought his teammates off the bench.
The Huskies were coming off a 90-79 loss to Oregon last
Saturday that snapped Washington's 18-game home winning streak.
Despite the one-sided the loss, Romar said he thought his
players showed "more grit" than they did against the Ducks.
The Huskies' Quincy Pondexter, though, said the team can put
out a better effort.
"We've just got to scrap," he said. "That's all I can say.
That will solve all the problems we've got."
Although the Huskies struggled against the zone defense, were
beaten on the boards 39-29 and only briefly cut the lead below 10
early in the second half, Romar was only mildly critical of his
team's play and its two-game losing streak.
"You know, since we've been here at Washington, we've gone
through worse times and ended up OK," he said.
Arizona State was swept at UCLA and USC last weekend, the
latest a 47-37 loss to the Trojans.
"We could have been down all week but we had a lot of good
practices this week," Abbott said. "We were really going hard,
going at each other, really trying to get better. Midway through
the week I knew it would turn around. I knew we had a shot."
Coach Herb Sendek agreed.
"Our guys came back, rolled up their sleeves and got to
work," he said. "It was a fun week of practice. We could feel good
about ourselves because of the investment that we made."
Neither team shot well as Arizona State took a 28-19 lead at
the break, the fewest points in the first half this season for the
Huskies. The previous low was 24 in their 63-59 win over Montana on
Nov. 29.
The Sun Devils were worse from the field in the first half,
making 6 of 22 (27 percent), but they were 5 of 13 from 3-point
range to Washington's 1 of 6.
The Huskies switched defensive specialist Venoy Overton to
Kuksik in the second half, but he still scored 14 points to his 13
in the first half.
Washington went the first 7:17 without a field goal, missing
its first nine shots.
The Sun Devils started the game 5 of 15, but all five were
3-points. Abbott's second 3 of the night put Arizona State up 17-9
with 6:49 to play, and his two free throws with 4:58 to go made it
22-11.
Pondexter's layup cut it to 28-21 in the first half, but
Kuksiks followed with a 3-pointer and Washington never got within
single digits again.
It was the seventh victory for Arizona State over a ranked
team in Sendek's three-plus seasons at the school. The Sun Devils
only had five in the previous 11 seasons.
