Huskies’ Title Hopes Dashed

In a span of two hours, Nate Robinson went from his hyper, high-energy self to slumped over and stone-faced. Washington missed one huge opportunity, and he partially blamed himself.

An inspired Stanford team surprised the No. 10 Huskies, 77-67, Saturday at Palo Alto, dashing their hopes of at least a share of their first Pacific 10 Conference title in two decades.

“We blew our chance. That was it,” said Robinson, frustrated with his four-of-16, 11-point performance. “I’m just speechless right now. I don’t know what to say. We couldn’t get it done.”

The Huskies, 24-5 overall and 14-4 in the Pac-10, haven’t won a league title since tying with USC in 1985.

It was Washington that kept Stanford from an undefeated regular-season last year by ending its 26-game winning streak with a 77-66 victory in Seattle during the final Pacific 10 weekend.

The cold-shooting Huskies never found any rhythm Saturday, only two days after making a school-record 16 three-point baskets in a 106-73 victory at California.

Washington has lost 12 in a row at Maples Pavilion, where a sellout crowd of 7,233 made it difficult for the Huskies all day.

For Stanford (17-11, 11-7), the win came after an embarrassing 59-48 loss to Washington State Thursday night.

The Cardinal, which has reached the NCAA tournament’s second round each of the last 10 seasons, enhanced its hopes of earning a bid to this year’s field of 65.

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No. 11 Arizona 70, Arizona State 68 -- Salim Stoudamire made a double-pump 14-foot shot with six-tenths of a second to play at Tempe, Ariz., to give the Wildcats the regular-season Pac-10 title.

Arizona Coach Lute Olson earned his 305th conference victory to break the Pacific 10 record of 304, which was held by John Wooden.

The Wildcats (25-5, 15-3) won their 11th conference title and their 20th victory in the last 21 meetings with Arizona State was a thriller.

The Sun Devils (18-12, 7-11) rallied from 18 down in the first half to pull to within one at the break, and from 15 in the second half to take the lead.

Stoudamire scored 22 points, but only four in the second half. His game-winner was his only basket in the half.

Replays showed he may have traveled on the play, but there was no whistle. Besieged Arizona State Coach Rob Evans wouldn’t comment on the no-call.

“I don’t get into officiating,” Evans said. “I mean, you saw the play.”

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California 63, Washington State 57 -- The Golden Bears (13-15, 6-12) kept alive their season by beating the Cougars (12-15, 7-11) in overtime at Berkeley.

The victory, combined with UCLA’s victory over Oregon, moved California into the Pac-10 tournament as the eighth-seeded team.

Cougar guard Thomas Kelati, who had 29 points, broke a 54-54 tie with 2:13 left in overtime with a three-point basket -- the last points for Washington State.