Men's Basketball: Huskies roll to victory

After beating a highly-ranked Oregon team on Thursday, the Washington basketball team knew it had not quite turned a corner. Instead, the players were intently focusing on Oregon State.

Despite a rocky start, the Huskies (13-7 overall, 3-6 Pac-10) came together quickly and accomplished their first sweep of the Pac-10 season, beating OSU 91-74.

"I think we made really good progress this weekend," said coach Lorenzo Romar. "In the first half, overall, we didn't do a good job. We turned the ball over too much and had some lapses, but in the second half we came out and did a much better job. We are really excited to go on the road and see what lies ahead."

While the Huskies were able to turn their game around in the second half [HTML_REMOVED] they cut down on their turnovers and mental mistakes [HTML_REMOVED] the terrible first half by Oregon State was just an indication of how bad its day was to be.

Aside from Josh Tarver, who scored a career-high 22 points, the Beavers had trouble shooting the ball from anywhere on the court. They shot an abysmal 37.5 percent from the free-throw line on 12-of-32 shooting from the charity stripe.

The Huskies received a second- consecutive big game from Justin Dentmon, who had 17 points and three assists, and also received a big performance from Jon Brockman.

"We had no answer for Jon Brockman," said Beaver coach Jay John. "We don't have a guy tough enough to deal with him. Down the stretch he kept Washington in the game, that is the story. In the first half his energy and his play really helped Washington. He is relentless."

In addition to his career-high 25 points along with eight rebounds, Brockman got his team fired up by diving after balls and in one instance flying off the court and up the tunnel after a loose ball.

"It's one of those things that really gets the crowd into it," Brockman said. "I think our team can kind of feed off of it, like 'Man he's really getting after it.' I think it keys us and squares us into our defense."

Romar was not worried about his big man, saying Brockman does it so often that his body barely registers the bumps and bruises he receives on a nightly basis.

"Jon's been knocking things down for a long time," Romar said. "His parents can attest to that. You saw how hard Jon played tonight."

Saturday it was the captain, Brockman, who led his team, but the coach realizes that to be successful [HTML_REMOVED] especially on the road [HTML_REMOVED] his whole team will have to rise to the challenge.

"You always want leadership from your older guys," Romar said. "But it has to be a team effort."

Reach reporter Justin Chartrey at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.