Washington Paces Itself, Gets a Win

Bobby Jones scored 12 points -- including the 1,000th of his career -- and No. 9 Washington extended the nation’s longest home winning streak to 31 games Friday night by slogging through a 54-37 victory over slow-motion Lehigh at Seattle.

Washington (10-0), which is off to its best start since going 14-0 in 1975-76, entered averaging a national-best 95.8 points.

Jose Olivero had 13 points for Lehigh (5-7), which shot 29% and finished with the fewest points for a Washington opponent since Jan. 24, 1970, when the Huskies beat Washington State, 37-36.

Lehigh forced Washington out of its full-court mode and into a tedious game of half-court patience. The teams combined for 38 turnovers.

“When other teams have played deliberate basketball against us, we have been able to force our will upon them,” Washington Coach Lorenzo Romar said. “We weren’t able to do that tonight.”

Romar was happy to have this tempo test immediately before his Huskies open Pacific 10 Conference play at home against Arizona State and Arizona next week.

“Over half our conference plays this same type of game,” Romar said, specifying Stanford, UCLA and Washington State. “We’ve got to be able to play this way.”

The Huskies pushed their lead to 28 points when it scored the first 11 points of the second half.

It was Washington’s 800th win at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, more than any other NCAA team in its current arena.

Pennsylvania has won 729 games at The Palestra in Philadelphia.

No. 2 Connecticut 129, Morehead State 61 -- Rashad Anderson made all seven of his three-point shots and scored a career-high 33 points to lead the Huskies (9-0) to a rout of the Eagles (1-8) at Storrs, Conn.

No. 16 Maryland 81, American 55 -- Nik Caner-Medley and Chris McCray each scored 17 points and the Terrapins (8-2) held the Eagles (3-7) to 17 points in the first half at College Park, Md.

No. 18 Indiana 73, Butler 55 -- Marco Killingsworth scored 27 points and Robert Vaden added 22 to lead the Hoosiers (7-2) to a victory at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Brandon Polk had 23 points for the Bulldogs (6-5).

No. 19 Kentucky 73, Iona 67 -- Rajon Rondo had 13 points and Rekalin Sims broke out of a shooting slump to add 11 as the Wildcats (8-3) won their annual home game at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Ky. Steve Burtt had 23 points for Iona (7-1).

No. 24 Ohio State 74, Tennessee State 65 -- Je’Kel Foster and Terence Dials each had 19 points for the Buckeyes at Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State is 8-0 for the first time in 15 seasons. Wayne Arnold had 23 points for the Tigers (2-4).

PACIFIC 10

Oregon State 73, Western Michigan 68 -- Chris Stephens scored 23 points to lead the Beavers (6-4) to a victory over the Broncos (3-6) in the fifth-place game of the Rainbow Classic at Honolulu.