Eagles can't Stuckey it to Huskies

It was supposed to be junior Joel Smith's coming-back celebration. After suffering a stress fracture in his right foot during the off-season, Smith was slated to enter the Washington men's basketball team's rotation for the first time this season last Friday.

• Husky basketball commit for the 2007 class Justin Holiday and his brother Jrue Holiday were both in attendance at the game. Jrue Holiday is listed as the No. 2 shooting guard in the nation in 2008 by Scout.com.

• The victory was the UW's 11th straight at-home and 19th consecutive regular season, non-conference win.

• Dentmon's previous career-high before the game was 17, set last season in a win over Gonzaga and matched earlier this year against Northern Iowa. He scored 19 in the second half against Eastern Washington.

[HTML_REMOVED] Ben Miller and Joshua Mayers

Instead, the Huskies' 90-83 victory over Eastern Washington became freshman Adrian Oliver's coming-out party.

Smith re-injured the stress fracture in practice last Tuesday when redshirt freshman Harvey Perry fell on the guard. He is expected to miss four to seven weeks.

In his absence, though, Oliver stepped up his game when the UW desperately needed it. Finishing the night with 14 points and team-highs in both rebounds and assists [HTML_REMOVED] with nine and five respectively [HTML_REMOVED] Oliver made a difference out on the floor.

"I thought for us, Adrian Oliver was the catalyst of our team in terms of providing energy," said Washington coach Lorenzo Romar. "[He] competed tonight, and that's one of the things we need to learn how to do [HTML_REMOVED] compete."

The contest was a bit of a dogfight in the beginning, but a 21-5 run by the Eagles (2-3) [HTML_REMOVED] which included 13 points from star sophomore Rodney Stuckey [HTML_REMOVED] in the first half pushed the score to 47-35 in EWU's favor.

However, the Huskies (5-0) finished the first half with a flurry as they scored the final 11 points of the frame to pull within one point going into the break. The run was highlighted by a last second heave by Oliver from just past half-court that found its way into the basket.

"I knew how much time was on the clock, and I got a lot of spin on the ball and a little luck," Oliver said.

The shot gave the Huskies some momentum going into halftime that would assure they were not going into the locker room with their heads down.

"That's one of the great plays as a coach," Romar said. "You don't want your players to come in all hot and bothered. That gets them awake. That sent us in the locker room with a risen spirit."

The major focus on the defensive end for the Huskies, Stuckey was able to run wild in the first period of action. At halftime, the Kent native had 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting.

"I said before the game that Rodney Stuckey is an NBA player," Romar said. "I didn't say that he has the potential to be, I said that he is. He is an NBA player. I think he could play in the NBA right now. He's a heck of a player. I don't know what he can't do."

But in the second half, foul trouble and a renewed defensive effort by Oliver [HTML_REMOVED] who started the second half in place of junior Ryan Appleby [HTML_REMOVED] helped shut down the do-everything guard. Stuckey finished with 31 points but shot just 4-for-13 from the floor in the second frame.

"If he got the ball, I just stayed in front of him," Oliver said. "I just tried to make it hard for him."

While Oliver provided the renewed energy and spirit for the Huskies, it was point guard Justin Dentmon who re-ignited the scoring. With the UW struggling to take the lead against the Eagles, the sophomore went to work.

Dentmon scored 19 of his career-high 23 points in the second half and shot 7-for-12 from the floor in the contest.

"It started off a little slow so it was time to click on a little early," he said.

But with 50.4 seconds left and the Huskies up 86-79, Stuckey drove to the basket right past a standing-still Dentmon. It was questionable if Dentmon even touched the guard, but the refs whistled him for a foul after Stuckey made his lay-in.

It was Dentmon's fifth foul of the game.

"I was hurt because I didn't touch him," Dentmon said. "He ran right past me."

Without Dentmon, Washington was able to come out with the victory even though freshman Quincy Pondexter [HTML_REMOVED] who finished with 15 points and eight rebounds [HTML_REMOVED] missed three free throws in the last minute.

"At this point, any game could be a close game for us," Romar said. "When I looked at the schedule early on, I thought that Eastern would be a team that would come in here and be very competitive."

Reporter Ben Miller: benmiller@thedaily.washington.edu