Washington's Isaiah Thomas drives towards the basket as Oregon's Jay-R Strowbridge defends him
By Tony Solorzano
(Los Angeles) – Washington’s Isaiah Thomas recorded his fifth double-double of the season as the Huskies returned to the finals of the Pacific Life Pac-10 Basketball Tournament by defeating Oregon 69-51 Friday night at Staples Center.
Thomas’ 12 assists put him in fourth place on the career assists list for Washington (22-10) with 393 assists, as well as making him the third Husky in school history to have back-to-back games with 10 or more assists twice in one season. However, the junior point guard felt no different in getting the ball to his teammates who were open.
“When you’re hitting shots it feels like every shot is going to go in. When you’re hitting assists, it feels like every pass is open,” Thomas said after the game. “My guys do a good job just getting open and knocking down shots and finishing at the rim.”
The first half of play was feast or famine in terms of scoring, as it took over two minutes before anyone put points on the board, E.J. Singler’s layup to give the Ducks their only lead of the game. The Huskies relied on a hot hand off the bench from Scott Suggs, who sank eight points in the half, including two three-pointers to lead the Huskies into the locker room sitting on a 30-21 lead.
In the second half, the Huskies put the game away early, increasing their lead to 14 points twice in the first six minutes of the half. However, the Ducks began a 10-0 run midway through the half, getting the lead down to four points, 44-40 with 9:15 left in the game. But the Huskies proved too powerful to overcome and Suggs closed out the scoring on two free throws with less than a minute left for the 69-51 victory.
“It’s disappointing, we didn’t make the same plays we made in the last two games and our movement on offense wasn’t as smooth,” said Oregon Head Coach Dana Altman. “We had chances but we didn’t make the key shots we needed.”
The Ducks’ Joevan Catron led all scorers with 18 points, 14 in the second half while Malcolm Armstead and E.J. Singler were the only other players for the Ducks in double figures 12 and 10 points, respectively.
In addition to Thomas’ double-double, C.J. Wilcox contributed 14 while Terrence Ross tossed in 13 for the Huskies, who face Arizona for the Pac-10 Title Saturday.
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