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Washington bounces back to rout Portland State

Dec 17, 2006 - 7:12 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Washington had a week to recover from its first loss of the season and took it out on Portland State.

Freshmen Spencer Hawes and Quincy Pondexter scored 23 of their combined 32 points in the first half as No. 14 Washington rolled to a 105-73 victory over Portland State.

Justin Dentmon paced five players in doubles figures with 18 points for the Huskies (8-1), who had won their first seven games before getting waylaid by Gongaza, 99-77, last Saturday.

Behind Hawes and Pondexter, Washington quickly seized control by racing to a 33-15 lead with 7:05 left in the opening half.

The 7-foot Hawes hit his first five shots from the field and scored 12 of his 16 points to help the Huskies to a 48-35 halftime lead. Pondexter was 5-of-7 and scored 11 of his 16 in the opening 20 minutes.

"Early on Spencer hadn't practiced with us for five weeks, but it just took our guys a little while to get used to getting the ball inside to him," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. "(Saturday) he still played well, but he was like Brandon Roy last year, when everyone would ask what was wrong with him when he didn't score over 20 points.

"There is nothing wrong, it's just that everyone else was getting open for shots. I thought that we moved the ball around well."

The highlight of the first half for the Vikings (7-4) was a turnaround 35-footer by Deonte Huff at the buzzer.

Washington put away the game in the second half, opening with a 23-9 run to extend the lead to 71-44 en route to its season-high total in points.

Dentmon scored 13 of his points in the second half and also grabbed nine rebounds to help the Huskies to a 44-26 edge on the backboards.

"He just is playing good basketball and trying to do whatever it takes to win," Romar said of Dentmon. "He does it all at a high level. Rarely in his two years has he played well and we didn't win."

Ryan Appleby came off the bench to score 15 points for the Huskies, who shot 60 percent (37-of-61) and hit 9-of-17 3-pointers in extending their home winning streak against non-conference foes to 25 games.

"They did a great job with their transitional offense," Portland State coach Ken Bone said. "They were really pushing it, but I was impressed by their shot selection."

Ryan Sommer scored 14 points to pace the Vikings, who had their three-game winning streak halted.