Washington won its first two conference games for only the second time in seven seasons. If the Huskies are to equal a school-record Pac-10 winning streak, they'll have to do it without a key member of their lineup.
Starting guard Abdul Gaddy tore his ACL in practice Tuesday and won't be in the lineup as No. 23 Washington goes for its 10th consecutive conference victory Thursday night against visiting Oregon.
The Huskies last won 10 straight Pac-10 games from Feb. 12, 2005 through Jan. 6, 2006.
Gaddy, who averaged 8.5 points and 3.8 assists, suffered the injury on a drive to the basket and is lost for the season.
''When something like that happens it's just tough,'' coach Lorenzo Romar said. ''It's tough to sit there in front of him and the doctor and watch him hear the news that he's not going to play basketball anymore for this team this year.''
The Huskies (10-3, 2-0) are coming off a 73-67 overtime victory last Wednesday at USC and a 74-63 win at UCLA on Friday. Senior Matthew Bryan-Amaning scored 18 and 21, respectively.
Freshman guard Terrence Ross, who scored 18 points against the Trojans, or sophomore C.J. Wilcox may replace Gaddy in the starting lineup. A taller guard like Ross (6-foot-6) or Wilcox (6-foot-5) combined with point guard Isaiah Thomas (5-foot-9) may help to view passing lanes against Oregon's full-court pressure.
"They press a lot," Romar said. "I don't think they're going to change much."
What has changed is Washington's high-scoring offense. Despite averaging a conference-high 87.9 points, the Huskies began Pac-10 play scoring less than 80 in back-to-back games after scoring more than 100 in four during the non-conference portion of their schedule.
While Oregon (7-7, 0-2) has kept opponents from lighting up the scoreboard, the Ducks aren't scoring many points of their own.
Oregon has lost four straight, including a 60-55 loss Sunday to Arizona State in its final game at MacArthur Court before moving into the $227-million Matthew Knight Arena on Jan. 13.
The Ducks are averaging only 56.3 points during their skid, shooting 33.9 percent from the field - 18.5 percent from 3-point range.
"We just have to keep on shooting it," said sophomore E.J. Singler, who scored a career high-tying 19 points against the Sun Devils. "One of these games they're going to go in."
Joevan Catron leads Oregon in scoring at 16.4 per game, but he netted a combined 20 in losses to Arizona and Arizona State.
First-year coach Dana Altman took some of the blame for the Ducks losing their first two conference games for the second time in three seasons.
"We played hard, we just didn't play smart, both defensively and offensively and that's my job to get these guys to play smart," Altman said.
Washington has won three of four against Oregon, but the matchups in recent years haven't been very tight contests. The last nine games have been decided by at least eight points, with the average margin of victory being 12.5.
The Ducks ended an eight-game losing streak at Washington last season, beating the Huskies 90-79 on Jan. 2, 2010.
