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Dentmon steps up as Washington knocks off UCLA

Feb 11, 2008 - 4:02 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Justin Dentmon's surprising stellar effort kept UCLA searching for answers.

Dentmon scored 12 of his 20 points in the second half as Washington picked up its biggest win of the year with a 71-61 upset of the fourth-ranked Bruins in the Pac-10 Conference on Sunday.

Jon Brockman added 12 points and 17 rebounds for the Huskies (13-11, 4-7 Pac-10), who claimed their first win in seven meetings with a ranked opponent this season.

"We've been talking to our team about toughness and believing that we could win," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. "We had lost both of those for a while. Today was only one day, but it was against one of, if not the nation's best team. We showed as much grit as a team can show. And trust me, that was the only way we were going to win that game."

On the other hand, UCLA (21-3, 9-2) dropped its fourth consecutive game here, struggling to deal with Washington's inspired play. Freshman Kevin Love and Darren Collison, the top two scorers for the Bruins, were limited to a combined 16 points.

"I have to give a lot of credit to the University of Washington for doing a great job today," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "I thought they did a good job really playing physical and playing tough and you have to credit them. It just goes to show you that anybody can beat anybody on any given night in this conference and that is a classic example of it right there."

Yet, the story of the game was Dentmon, who entered the matchup with just one double-digit scoring effort in his last 10 games. Averaging just 5.6 points over that span, Dentmon stepped up midway through the second half to make sure that the Huskies did not lose their slim lead.

"I've been letting my teammates down by not being aggressive," Dentmon said. "I've just been out of it. I'm trying to show them that I can pick it up. I tried my best tonight."

With Washington up just 43-40 after a tip shot by Love with 13:48 to go, Dentmon followed with a layup. He also knocked down a jumper to bookend an 8-2 run that made it 51-42 with 10:50 left.

The Bruins, who had a five-game winning streak snapped, attempted to erase their deficit again, closing within 51-48 on two free throws by Russell Westbrook with 9:30 left.

However, freshman Matthew Bryan-Amaning hit a jumper, Quincy Pondexter split two free throws and Brockman added a jumper to make it an eight-point game with 7:20 to play.

UCLA was able to get no closer that four points down the stretch and suffered an insult to injury when Alfred Aboya took a ball off his face as Washington's Tim Morris was attempting to avoid a five-second call on an inbounds with 47 seconds left.

The ball went out of bounds near the Bruins' bench, allowing the Huskies to retain possession.

"He threw the ball off the kid's face," Howland said. "The official said there was nothing he could do."

Dentmon, who finished 7-of-12 from the field, added eight points over the final 6:49 to help snap a four-game losing streak for the Huskies.

The junior guard also made a 3-pointer and converted 5-of-9 free throws in recording his highest scoring effort in the Pac-10 since notching his career high of 24 against Oregon on January 25, 2007.

The top rebounder in the Pac-10 by just two-tenths of a point over Love, Brockman did the majority of his damage on the offensive end, grabbing nine boards. Overall, Washington finished with an 18-16 advantage in offensive rebounds.

"He does a great job," Howland said of Brockman. "He's averaging almost five a game and today he had nine. Sometimes you have to rotate over and when you rotate over someone else has to block him out. It's a hard block out because he is so big and strong."

Josh Shipp scored 19 points and Westbrook added 18 for UCLA, which finished 34 percent (21-of-61) from the field and 1-of-16 on 3-pointers.

The Bruins also had 16 turnovers, including 11 in the first half as they went on to fall behind 35-28 at the half.

Washington's physical play took its toll on UCLA, as Collison took an uncharacteristic technical foul in the opening moments of the second half when he got into the face for backup guard Adrian Oliver.

"I thought that his third foul, the technical, was a key juncture because he had to put his hands in his pockets," Howland said of Collison. "That was a bad time for us. We lost our composure and there is no reason for that. It was a very physical game all the way down to the ball thrown off of our guy's face."

Collison finished 1-of-8 from the field en route to a season-low three points. The junior guard also had a career-high eight turnovers against just four assists.

Love had 13 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. It was the seventh double-double in the last eight games for the freshman.