Huskies Survive Tough Sledding

It certainly doesn’t have the cachet of, say, Duke-North Carolina, but Washington and Stanford are quickly developing a nice little rivalry.

Washington won the latest battle Friday night in front of 15,068 at Staples Center, pulling out a hard-fought 66-63 victory in a frenetic Pacific 10 Conference tournament semifinal, but only after Stanford guard Jason Haas missed a late three-pointer.

Washington guard Nate Robinson gave the defending tournament champions an opening when he missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw opportunity with 8.8 seconds left, and Stanford worked the ball to Haas in the right corner.

But Haas’ three-pointer went in and out and the Cardinal missed a tip-in before knocking the ball out of bounds as time expired.

“It was a good shot,” Stanford Coach Trent Johnson said. “Jason stepped up with confidence, it just didn’t go down.”

Second-seeded Washington (26-5) will play top-seeded Arizona (27-5) in the championship at 3 this afternoon. The 14th-ranked Huskies have never won the Pac-10 tournament, advancing to the final twice, including last year.

Bobby Jones and Robinson scored 14 points apiece for Washington, which won despite shooting 40.6% from the field and tying its season low for points. Tre Simmons, the Huskies’ top marksman, finished with two points after making only one of seven shots.

“That’s what teammates do, they pick each other up,” said Jones, the former Long Beach Poly High standout.

Forward Matt Haryasz led Stanford with 15 points, including two free throws to pull the Cardinal to within 62-61.

Guard Brandon Roy made a driving shot in the lane to give the Huskies a 64-61 lead before missing a free throw with 53 seconds left. But Simmons corralled the long rebound, and Roy eventually tipped in Robinson’s miss to make it 66-61.

Center Rob Little pulled the Cardinal to within 66-63 with 9.8 seconds left when the Huskies were called for goaltending on his shot under the basket.

The rivalry between the Huskies and Cardinal has intensified over the last couple of years. Washington handed Stanford its only regular-season loss last season before losing to the Cardinal, 77-66, in the conference tournament championship game.

The teams had split their regular-season series this year, Stanford winning, 77-67, a week ago at Palo Alto.

Stanford (18-12) hopes it punched its ticket to the NCAA tournament with its win over Washington State on Thursday.

“If our body of work all year long isn’t good enough for the NCAA,” Johnson said, “we’ll go somewhere else and play.”