Huskies earn roaring victory

It would have been easy for the Washington men's basketball team to overlook Loyola-Marymount with the big showdown against No. 8 Gonzaga looming.

Instead, the Huskies (6-0) welcomed the Lions (1-2) to Seattle with a 112-65 victory on Friday, in the process winning their 28th home game in a row.

The Huskies are not taking any teams lightly and now have expanded the nation's longest home-winning streak.

"They scored 93 points on us last year and they have pretty much all their guys back [from last season]," sophomore Ryan Appleby said. "We knew it was going to be tough game so we came out really focused and ready to play."

It showed.

Washington never trailed, and before four minutes had passed, all five starters had scored.

"We got through a stretch where we played six games and I thought tonight may have been our best effort of all six," coach Lorenzo Romar said.

Thanks in part to a 22-5 run and 12 first-half points from senior Brandon Roy, the Huskies went into the locker room with a 65-31 lead. The 65 first-half points scored by the Huskies were the highest figure ever in the first half for a UW team.

The Huskies finally had their aggressive defense working at full speed, forcing 22 turnovers in the first half, led by sophomore Joel Smith's three steals.

"There aren't that many teams in America that can press and put the pressure on teams the whole 40 minutes like we can," senior Bobby Jones said.

The Huskies are averaging 98.5 points per game, the highest average in history for a Husky team after six games.

"You have to have a lot of possessions to score this many points and the ball has to go in the basket a lot to score this many points," Romar said. "I don't think we'll be averaging 95 points for the rest of the year, but I think we do have the ability to score points."

One Husky who has consistently shown that he can score points every time he enters the game is Appleby. Against the Lions, he came out firing, and scored 18 points on 6-11 shooting from downtown.

"Obviously Appleby hit a lot of shots, but that is his ammo," Marymount coach Rodney Tention said, adding sarcastically, "He shoots threes, and today we decided that we weren't going to guard him at the three-point line."

Roy finished with 19 points and five Huskies scored in double-figures.

With the first six games behind them, the Huskies will now focus one of their biggest games of the year: Gonzaga comes into town on Dec. 4.