Washington Putting It All Together

It has taken longer than expected, but the Washington Huskies are finally beginning to resemble the team that reached the Sweet 16 of last year’s NCAA tournament.

Guard Donald Watts scored 24 points and swingman Deon Luton had 20 to lead Washington to an important 90-84 Pacific 10 Conference victory over No. 10-ranked Arizona Thursday night at Seattle.

Washington, 13-7 overall and 6-4 in the Pacific 10, has won six of its last seven games. The Huskies were coming off a 93-83 victory over No. 13 UCLA on Sunday.

Arizona (15-4, 7-3) came back after falling behind by 17 points twice early in the second half.

Jason Terry made a turnaround jumper with 33.1 seconds left to pull the Wildcats within 85-82, but that was as close as they could get.

Freshman guard Senque Carey made three of four free throws, while Watts scored on a driving dunk with 5.8 seconds to close out the scoring for the Huskies, who are 9-0 at home.

Carey had 17 points, and 7-foot center Todd MacCulloch had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Terry, the Pacific 10’s leading scorer, had 28 points, freshman forward Michael Wright had 19 points and 10 rebounds, while center A.J. Bramlett had 12 points and 16 rebounds.

Arizona had a 49-39 rebounding advantage.

Arizona State 69, Washington State 64--Forward Mike Batiste stole the ball and scored on a dunk with 56 seconds to put the Sun Devils (13-9, 5-5) ahead for good at Pullman, Wash.

Batiste’s basket gave Arizona State a 63-62 lead and guard Eddie House made all six of his free throws to keep Washington State (9-12, 3-7) from coming back.

House had 19 points--15 in the second half--and a career high 11 rebounds. Forward Bobby Lazor led Arizona State with 20 points.

Guard Jan-Michael Thomas had 19 points for Washington State, making five of nine three-point shots.