Huge Husky Fan Base Howl UW Past UCLA At Pauley Pavilion
WESTWOOD (AP) -- The Washington Huskies completed a weekend in Southern California like they haven't enjoyed for quite a while.
Matthew Bryan-Amaning scored 21 points and Washington used a 27-10 run over both halves to beat UCLA 74-63 Friday, giving the Huskies their first Pac-10 sweep in Los Angeles since 2006.
Washington (10-3, 2-0) won at Pauley Pavilion for the first time in four years, also the last time the Huskies beat both of the LA schools and only their third sweep ever.
They edged Southern California 73-67 in overtime on Wednesday.
Washington's win was a big hit among its large contingent of fans who traveled from San Diego after the Huskies' victory over Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl on Thursday.
They woofed their approval in the waning minutes.
"Our fans were unbelievable tonight and against SC," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. "We've never had that kind of support in LA."
Isaiah Thomas added 17 points and nine assists, and Bryan-Amaning had 10 rebounds.
The win was especially sweet for seniors Bryan-Amaning, Justin Holiday and Venoy Overton, who had never won at Pauley.
"I told the team the first person I'm going to call is Quincy Pondexter," Bryan-Amaning said of the former Huskies star. "LA is going to be the hardest road trip for everyone in the conference."
The Huskies swept a league road series to start the season for the first time since 1976, when they won at California and Stanford.
"Especially with the football team winning, we knew we had to win it for them," Thomas said.
Reeves Nelson had 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Tyler Honeycutt and Malcolm Lee added 12 points each for the Bruins (9-5, 1-1), who saw their six-game winning streak snapped. Starting guard Lazeric Jones will need to wear a splint after injuring the middle finger on his right hand. He was limited to 16 minutes.
"They're a really good team. They just executed better than us. They had the weapons," said Nelson, who took an elbow to his mouth from Aziz N'Diaye that loosened a front tooth.
UCLA shot 35 percent from the floor and made 21 more trips to the free-throw line than the Huskies, but couldn't convert consistently down the stretch.
"That was a very frustrating, disappointing loss," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "They really hurt us in transition. It seemed when we did turn it over, they scored."
After Washington's dominant run gave the Huskies a 17-point lead early in the second half, UCLA rallied to get within four points three times.
But the Huskies always answered. Leading 63-59, they got a basket by Bryan-Amaning and a 3-pointer from Darnell Gant to stay in front 68-59 with 3:22 left.
"That was the turning point in the game," Nelson said.
The Bruins were undone by missed shots, poor free-throw shooting and shot-clock violations.
Trailing by four, Jerime Anderson couldn't inbound the ball before committing a five-second
violation, a turnover that led to four straight points by the Huskies.
"It was more just us having an off night. A lot of people got into foul trouble early," said Honeycutt, one of three Bruins with at least three fouls.
The Huskies have won a school-record six straight Pac-10 road games and nine consecutive league games dating to last season.
Washington won at Pauley for the first time since 2006 and improved to 7-59 all-time in the building.
"It says how mature we are, especially to come on the road for the first two league games," Thomas said.
It was Romar's second win in nine games at Pauley, where he worked as a UCLA assistant under Jim Harrick when the Bruins won the national championship in 1995.
Harrick made his way to the Huskies' locker room afterward.
"The pressure is always on when Jim Harrick is in the building.
When we don't do something right, it's like, `Romar, you need to ...,"' the coach said, mimicking Harrick's Southern drawl.
The Huskies led nearly all the way in the first half. After trailing by seven, the Bruins rallied to tie the game at 25 on a free throw by Brendan Lane. From there, Washington outscored them 13-6 to lead 38-31 at the break.
Washington's defense forced the Bruins to shoot from the perimeter and saddled their big man Joshua Smith with two fouls, limiting him to 10 minutes after he scored four of UCLA's first six points. Smith fouled out with 2:34 remaining.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
