Pac 10 basketball: Washington hangs on to get to NCAA tournament
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Washington’s basketball team became masters of its own destiny.
The Huskies, an iffy proposition to make the NCAA tournament even as the Pacific 10 Conference’s third-place team, handled their own invitation with a 79-75 victory over California in the Pacific Life Pac-10 tournament championship game at Staples Center on Saturday.
In a game of many ebbs and flows, Washington (24-9) had enough of a surge at the end to snag the conference’s automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. California (23-10), the conference regular-season champion, is expected to get an at-large bid.
The last time the Pac-10 had only two teams make the NCAA tournament was 1987-88. Regular-season runner-up Arizona State is considered a bubble team.
Venoy Overton’s two free throws with two seconds left finally clinched the victory for the Huskies. California’s Jerome Randle tried to get the Bears even with four seconds left, throwing the ball off the rim on a free-throw attempt when trailing by two points. Randle got the rebound, but was called for a lane violation.
The Huskies, whose resume for an at-large invitation was suspect, nearly gave the game away. They led, 61-52, with 11:47 left, but went without a field goal for the next six minutes. California scored 15 consecutive points to take a 67-61 lead.
The Huskies, who shot 52% from the field, did not panic and scrapped back into the game. A three-pointer by Elston Turner gave Washington a 71-68 lead and the Huskies never trailed again.
Quincy Pondexter had 18 points and Isaiah Thomas added 16 to lead Washington. Thomas was selected the tournament’s most valuable player.
Theo Robertson had 25 points and Jamal Boykin added 20 to lead California. But the Bears, who made 17 three-pointers during the first two games of the tournament, were five for 19 on threes and shot 42% overall from the field. The Huskies held guard Jerome Randle to 12 points.
-- Chris Foster
Twitter.com/cfosterlatimes
