Washington clinches outright conference title

Quincy Pondexter scored 16 points and Jon Brockman tied his career high with 18 rebounds in his final home game to lead No. 16 Washington to a 67-60 victory over Washington State on Saturday at Seattle, clinching its first outright conference championship since 1953.

Venoy Overton scored 14 points and threw the ball high toward the roof of raucous Hec Edmundson Pavilion as the final buzzer sounded. He then danced across the edge of the scorer’s table while fans stormed the court and demanded the nets be cut down.

The Huskies (24-7, 14-4) won their first Pacific 10 Conference outright title, and first outright championship in any league since winning the Pacific Coast Conference 56 years ago.

Taylor Rochestie overcame a cold start to score 23 points for Washington State (16-14, 8-10), which lost both games to its archrival this season after beating the Huskies seven consecutive times.

“We worked really hard! We had great leadership! We had a commitment by 13 guys to be a team, no matter what!” Huskies Coach Lorenzo Romar yelled over the public-address system to a roaring crowd as he stood on a ladder after cutting down the last strand of net.

“For these guys to experience a Pac-10 championship is very special!”

No. 21 Arizona State 83, California 66 -- Jeff Pendergraph had 27 points and 10 rebounds in his final home game at Tempe, Ariz., for the Sun Devils (22-8, 11-7), who beat the Golden Bears (22-9, 11-7) to end a three-game losing streak.

It might also have been the last home game for Arizona State’s James Harden, a sophomore who is projected as a high pick in the NBA draft. Harden, the Pac-10’s leading scorer, had 20 points.

Jerome Randle scored 24 points for California, which will be seeded third for the Pac-10 tournament.

Arizona 101, Stanford 87 -- Chase Budinger matched his season high with 28 points, Nic Wise had 27 and the Wildcats (19-12, 9-9) won their regular-season finale over the Cardinal (17-12, 6-12) at Tucson.

Budinger made 10 of 14 shots and the Wildcats shot a season-best 70% to keep alive hopes for a 25th straight NCAA tournament berth. Jordan Hill had 20 points for Arizona, which ended a losing streak at four games.

Freshman Jeremy Green made six three-pointers and had 22 points for Stanford.