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With Husky Digest's Jim Basnight

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(Courtesy of regular Husky Digest contributor Jason McCleary)

In a rematch of old friends, that turned out to be rather a lopsided and rather inhospitable social event, the Washington Huskies romped all over Portland State Sunday night at the Bank of America Arena in Seattle 111-55. Quincy Pondexter scored a career high with 29 points to go with 13 rebounds which tied his career high.

Isaiah Thomas scored 21 points and Venoy Overton followed "Zeke" with 11 points, but what was most impressive was the overall team work. Quincy, Isaiah and Matthew Bryan-Amaning (who finished with a workman-like 8 points, 7 rebounds, a block and 3 steals) were selected to the All-Tournament Team and were co-MVP's of the event.

Husky basketball was out in full force. Washington had 25 assists to 11 turnovers, while only allowing 10 dimes and forcing 20 TO's. Justin Holiday scored his career high 10 points and almost everyone on UW's bench had plays which made you think that this guy is outstanding or at least is going to be so, as the Huskies out rebounded PSU by nearly a three to one margin at 47-16.

Though the first five minutes of play in the first half were very ugly for the Dawgs, after the five minute mark the clinic began and the Huskies didn't look back.

The first five minutes Portland St came out with a chip on their shoulder. Former UW basketball player Phil Nelson came out strong and ended up leading his team in points with 13.

Coach Lorenzo Romar noticed that the Dawgs needed to stop or at least slow down Phil to get their train rolling.

"You can't give him an inch. Early on, we missed a couple of assignments, a couple of coverage's. You can't do that with Phil Nelson. He's going to burn you. Once we settle down and we were all on the same page, I just thought we were able to do a little better job of containing him."

Melvin Jones, a former Chief Sealth (Seattle WA) player who came to PSU from NIC in CDA, ID also contributed early. Jones is well acquainted with Husky Venoy Overton, from playing ball in Seattle and vice versa.

Overton felt that the Vikings just weren't ready yet to play with Washington, at least last night.

"I think they were not used to playing with each. They're and up-and-down team too, but tonight, we were just the better team."

Nelson and Jones combined for 8 quick points to start the game, but Portland State's 1st year head coach Tyler Geving could not get his team to rebound or take care of the ball, so when the early spurt slowed down his team was literally snowed in.

"The just killed us on the glass, embarrassed us on the glass. We didn't take care of the ball, gave them easy transition baskets. They won every phase of the game tonight."

Pondexter and Bryan-Amaning combined for 10 points in the first five minutes. The key observation about those first ten points is that those points were all garbage buckets. Huskies were having a hard time shooting at the beginning of the game against the 2-3 zone, but Quincy, Matt and others filled some big shoes tonight hitting the boards.

After the 15 minute mark in the first half, the Huskies went on a 40-15 run to end the first half. Isaiah Thomas finished with 8 points in the first half, showing that he doesn't need to go out and score 30 every game for the Huskies to compete. Every Husky who stepped on the court scored, except walk-on Brendan Sherrer, as they just wore down Portland St throughout the night.

The second half wasn't much different, except it was Isaiah Thomas turn to put on a show. Thomas struggled in the first half but scored most of his buckets in the second half finishing 4-7 from the three point line and finished with 21 points. Those who have followed Thomas through the high school days love to see that stat, since he was a premier shooter coming out of Tacoma's Curtis High School.

Thomas didn't force his shot in the second half. Screens were set for him to shoot the ball comfortably and it worked the whole second half. Portland State never came close in the second half of play. No run to test the Dawgs, that wasn't answered with a resounding thud of the door being shut on the Vikings. Instead everyone on the Huskies was just getting involved in the flow of the game.

Justin Holiday had his best game this year filling up the stat sheet. Holiday finished with his 10 points (a career high), but also added 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 rebounds in what could be peek into things to come for the junior who has missed so much time this fall rehabbing a groin injury. Holiday looked real solid today and was very comfortable out on the court. Clarence Trent went 4-4 from the field and is still just getting into the flow of Lorenzo Romar's system.

With a very mediocre Portland State team, there is not that much to take out of this game, but Huskies came to play and Portland St just didn't. Romar's defense had Portland State shook the whole game forcing them to 20 turnovers. Rebounding was huge today for the Dawgs out rebounding Portland St 47-16.

The Huskies will be back at it again Thursday at 7:00 pm (PST) against San Jose State at Bank of America Arena.

Key Observations

Freshman guard Abdul Gaddy is still struggling. The skills are there. Everything in the package is there. Everything is there except heart. You can just see the talent but the kid needs a kick in the butt or something.

Isaiah Thomas shot falling like it did in the second half will be trouble for any team in the country.

Darnell Gant is hitting his jumper in the corner he struggled on last year with consistency.

Venoy's defense is still extremely great, if not better.

"MBA" and Gant need to stop committing petty fouls, as UW already lacks height and depth in the post.

The Huskies struggle against the 2-3 zone still and will need to rebound like they did tonight in order to keep winning.

This Portland St team is 0-3 and lost to everyone this weekend, so don't take much out of this game.

The Dawgs will face another former Husky in high scoring SG Adrian Oliver next at the Bank of America Arena on Friday November 20th at 8PM.

UW Links

Don Ruiz of the Morning News Tribune ran his game story that focused on the dominant performance that Quincy had. Pondexter is making it look easy and really made a statement last night as to what UW fans could be seeing this year. I think that Pac-10 Player of the Year is a reasonable goal for him.

Josh Anderson at Rivals did a very complete game story that interjected some good analysis. Josh also did a nice summary analysis piece for his Montlake Madness blog that brought up some very insightful points.

He debated with himself a question that he labeled, "The Turner/Suggs/Holiday Quandary". I feel that it will play itself out, as all three guys are somewhat different, but have all shown improvement in their overall games enough to not be considered just situational substitutions for Quincy or Isaiah.

Scout's Chris Wells did their game story. He brought attention to the student rooting section, known as the Dawgpack, which clearly helped the Huskies cause in the rout. To quote Wells, "Nelson was hassled all night by Washington's student section, with chants of 'Phil is angry' and 'Phil is tired."

The Seattle Times game story by Percy Allen drew attention to the game within the game between Pondexter and Nelson. In his analysis on the Times blog he brought up the leadership that Quincy is showing, as this UW team is starting to really look like his team.

Go Huskies did their usual outstanding job, including the box score, quotes, photo gallery and recap. The Dawg Channel provides the post game press conference for about ten bucks a month, as well as other events like the Tuesday press conference. I think it's worth the dough, if you're a junkie like me.

Zag Notes

Andy Katz in his preview of the ESPN 24-hour marathon of college hoops that starts Tuesday, mentioned Gonzaga's Elias Harris as, "The top foreign starter you may not know". Though Andy is never one to miss an opportunity to mention a Zag, Katz is right about Harris, who will face Michigan State in what will be a huge test for the Bulldogs. The Spartans and the Zags will tip off at 5PM (PST).

Katz also mentions Peyton Siva, whose Cardinals will face hot shooting Rotnei Clarke and the Arkansas Razorbacks. He also mentions that UCLA will be shown against Cal State Fullerton. Too bad we don't get to see the Bruins against someone better. If the Titans (whose program has literally unraveled since the glory days of the mid-80's) give UCLA a scare, Howland has some serious work to do. Future Husky opponent Georgetown will also be featured and Katz mentioned Hoya center Greg Monroe as one of the best big men in the country. Here's the schedule.

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