Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, March 14, 2005, SECTION B, Page 10B, Image 26

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GOT A STORY IDEA? I
Washington wins first-ever
Pac-10 Tournament title
BY BETH HARRIS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — If momentum
heading into Saturday’s Pacific-10 Con
ference title game was the deciding fac
tor, top-seeded Arizona had the obvi
ous edge against Washington. After
outscoring its first two Pac-10 Tourna
ment opponents by a combined
56 points, the Wildcats, with the
help of sharpshooting senior Salim
Stoudamire, seemed too hot to cool off.
But despite another outstanding
performance by Stoudamire, Nate
Robinson and the 14th-ranked
Huskies, managed to shift that
momentum in their own direction.
Washington outscored Arizona
19-4 over the final 5:12 after trailing
by six points and pulled off the
81-72 victory over the No. 8 Wildcats.
The Huskies (27-5) earned the
conference’s automatic bid to the
NCAA tournament, although Arizona
(27-6) is guaranteed a berth, too.
“It feels great,” said Robinson,
who scored six points — his only
ones of the second half — in the final
1:07 of the game. “We’re proud of the
whole University of Washington
because we did it for them.”
Washington coach Lorenzo Romar
compared the game to a prize fight.
“One punch after another,” he
said. “Arizona brings out the best in
us because for so long they have
been the best.”
The Huskies won their three
tourney games by a total of 17 points.
The Huskies dominated the
boards, 41-26, including a 17-8 offen
sive edge. All but two of Washing
ton’s nine players grabbed rebounds,
with Robinson getting five.
“No question the team that played
the hardest won the ballgame,” Ari
zona coach Lute Olson said. “They’re
one of the few teams that can send five
people to the offensive boards and are
quick enough to recover defensively.”
Robinson and TYe Simmons led the
Huskies with 18 points each and Ja
maal Williams added 16.
Stoudamire led Arizona with
37 points — two off both his career
high and Reggie Miller’s tournament
record. Stoudamire hit seven three
pointers and the teams combined
for 17 three-pointers — both tourna
ment records. He was selected the
tourney MVP.
Stoudamire scored 17 straight to
end the first half.
“You got to keep telling the other
guys he doesn’t want to pass you the
ball and that’s what we did,” said
Robinson, a sly smile on his face. “A
couple whispers ... it kills the other
team’s confidence.”
Robinson defended Stoudamire and
compared it to playing without his
hands. “You just got to run around and
chase him,” he said. “We said, ‘He’s
going to score, but we can’t let the role
players get their 15 and 8.’”
Robinson joked that he told
Danielle Hickey | Photo editor
Washington guard Nate Robinson's late-game heroics helped lead the Huskies past
Arizona on Saturday for the schools first-ever Pac-10 Tournament championship.
Stoudamire the Arizona star was
going to have to score 100 points to
beat the Huskies. Asked if he really
said that, Robinson replied, “No,
because he would have gone for 50. ”
Stoudamire set the Pac-10 career
record for three-pointers with 329,
breaking the mark of 323 by Arizona
State’s Stevin Smith from 1991-94. The
senior finished with 107, joining Steve
Kerr, cousin Damon Stoudamire and
Jason Gardner as the only Wildcats to
top the century mark in a season.
But he couldn’t help the Wildcats
to their record fifth tourney title. They
are 4-1 in championship games.
“I wanted to be the guy that every
one looks up to, but at the same time,
we got to stay within the team con
cept,” Stoudamire said. “We got
away from that.”
The Huskies scored six straight and
tied it at 70 on two free throws by
Bobby Jones after Chris Rodgers was
called for holding with 3:34 remaining.
Arizona’s Channing Frye scored
inside before Will Conroy hit his
fourth three-pointer of the half for a
73-72 lead with 2:15 to go. Frye
finished with 14 points.
With Frye and Stoudamire tightly
guarded, Hassan Adams missed a
jumper from the top of the key.
The 5-foot-9 Robinson fearlessly
drove inside and scored to keep the
Huskies ahead 75-72 with 1:07 left.
“Nate always comes up big when
the game is on the line,” Olson said.
Stoudamire tripped and fell in front
of Arizona’s bench, losing the ball
out of bounds with 46 seconds left.
Asked if he was tripped, Stoudamire
said, “I think so, but obviously the ref
didn’t. You can’t let referees decide the
game. We should’ve been ahead by a
lot more.”
A smiling Olson said he also
believed Stoudamire was tripped.
“But who am I to question that call?
That one call didn’t cost us the
game,” Olson said.
Then Stoudamire fouled Robinson,
who made both free throws, for a
77-72 lead with 34 seconds left. Sim
mons made two free throws, then
Stoudamire’s jumper bounced off the
rim with 26 seconds to go.
Robinson stole the ball at mid
court, got fouled and made both for
an 81-72 lead with 19 seconds left.
NCAA: UCLA grabs one of last at-large bids
Continued from page 3B
The No. 2 seed in the Albuquerque,
N.M., regional was Wake Forest, which
was considered a sure No. 1 seed can
didate; but the Demon Deacons lost in
the ACC tournament quarterfinals to
North Carolina State. Gonzaga, the
West Coast Conference regular season
and tournament champion, was seed
ed third and Louisville, which swept
the Conference USA titles, was No. 4.
North Carolina, which lost to Geor
gia Tech in the ACC tournament
semifinals, has defending national
champion Connecticut as its No. 2
seed with Kansas at No. 3. Florida,
which beat Kentucky in the SEC title
game, is at No. 4.
The Tar Heels will face the winner
of Tuesday’s play-in game in Charlotte
on Friday. Oakland (12-18), which
won the Mid-Continent Conference
tournament, will play Alabama A&M,
the Southwestern Athletic Conference
champion, on Thesday night in Day
ton, Ohio. Oakland is the only team in
the field with a sub-.500 record.
Duke, which won the ACC tourna
ment Sunday for the sixth time in
seven years, has Kentucky as its No.
2 seed with Oklahoma the third seed
and Syracuse, the Big East tourna
ment champion, the fourth seed.
Duke will open Friday in Charlotte,
N.C., against Delaware State.
The Big East and Big 12 each have
six teams in the field, one short of the
record seven, while the Big Ten has
five. The other multiple-bids leagues
were Conference USA and the Pac-10
with four each, the Missouri Valley
Conference with three and the Big
West Conference, Mountain West
Conference, West Coast Conference
and Western Athletic Conference
with two each.
The last of the at-large teams were
all No. 11 seeds: Alabama-Birming
ham (21-10), Northern Iowa (21-10)
and UCLA (18-10).
Among the bubble teams that were
not invited were: DePaul (19-10),
Maryland (16-12), St. Joseph’s
(19-11) and Notre Dame (17-11).