Huskies vandalize Idaho

For the first time in a while, it was not the Washington men's basketball team that had trouble getting things going.

After struggling out of the gate in its previous games against Sacramento State and Eastern Washington, the No. 11 Huskies (6-0) basketball team came out like a team on a mission last night, as it beat Idaho 87-66.

"It's a mentally tough thing when you're playing teams that people expect you to beat," said forward Jon Brockman. "We need to keep perfecting what we do, though, so that when we get in the big game we don't play like we did earlier this year."

On a night when the shot was not falling for many of the Huskies, it was defense and rebounding that helped propel them over the Vandals (1-5). Washington forced 20 turnovers from its opponents, and out-rebounded Idaho 50-26.

"I thought we made progress tonight with only 12 turnovers," said coach Lorenzo Romar. "And we did well on the glass. Jon, Quincy [Pondexter] and Spencer [Hawes] really hit the boards hard."

Brockman led the team with 14 rebounds, a career-high, when he had struggled shooting the ball. Hawes was second with nine on a night when he had just seven points and Pondexter pulled down eight.

"It was one of those nights where nothing else was going right," Brockman said. "So I thought I'd try to go after the boards."

Pondexter picked up the offensive slack as the team [HTML_REMOVED] apart from the freshman [HTML_REMOVED] shot just 20-for-61. He made the difference, scoring a game- and career-high 25 points.

Aside from him, the only other Husky to hit double figures in points was Ryan Appleby, who chipped in 11, nine of those coming on 3-pointers.

"It was easy because when you kick it to Spencer in the post, they sink in," Pondexter said. "My teammates just found me. We're playing well together. We're winning games; that's all that matters."

It was the small forward who instigated two big scoring runs, one at the end of the first half and one to start the second half and put Idaho away.

In the last 7:42, he scored eight points during a 14-2 Husky run to close the first half.

Out of the gate in the second, Pondexter poured in 12 points in the first five minutes to balloon the lead to 17. Washington would stay on the offensive and extend that lead to 23 points before it was all over.

Defensively, the Huskies were able to keep Idaho off the scoreboard for the first four minutes of the game, and kept all but two players out of double digits. Keoni Watson and Mario Mackey were able to find their points, with 19 and 15 respectively, but the Vandals never got into a rhythm due to the tight defensive effort.

"We had more looks tonight," said Idaho coach George Pfeifer. "We were not tight enough in what we did, though. And [the Huskies] are really dangerous to play because of the different times their little bonfire turns into a forest fire [HTML_REMOVED] just like Pondexter did."

Reporter Justin Chartrey: justinchartrey@thedaily.washington.edu