Turning 'Em to Mush

By Diane Pucin

March 13, 2005 12 AM PT

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Times Staff Writer

When Arizona’s Salim Stoudamire was making shots from everywhere, from 30 feet away, from the lane with a little spin move, from the baseline, from the foul line, when he was shooting over the outstretched hand of one defender, or two or three or four, Washington guard Nate Robinson said he felt unarmed.

“It was like playing defense without your hands,” Robinson said. “It was like both your arms were cut off and you were just running around and chasing him.”

Stoudamire tied his career high by scoring 37 points for Arizona, including the final 17 of the first half. The senior was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.

But Washington won.

The second-seeded Huskies won their first Pacific 10 Conference tournament title with an 81-72 victory over top-seeded Arizona on Saturday in front of 18,672 at Staples Center. The eighth-ranked Wildcats (27-6), who had been hoping to earn a No. 1 seeding in the NCAA tournament, lost in the conference championship game for the first time in five appearances.

They were outhustled by Washington, were outrebounded by 15, were left lagging behind the racing Huskies (27-5).

“This was a great win over a great team by a great bunch of guys,” Washington Coach Lorenzo Romar said. “Salim Stoudamire played his heart out, but our guys stayed tough and played with a great sense of urgency.”

After Stoudamire pushed the Wildcats to a 41-33 halftime lead by busting unguardable moves from every angle, Washington outscored Arizona, 20-8, to start the second half and 17-2 over the final 5:01, after Stoudamire had given his team a 70-64 lead with two free throws.

Those were Stoudamire’s final points, however.

Washington guard Tre Simmons scored two straight baskets -- one on an offensive rebound -- to get the Huskies started and Will Conroy’s three-pointer with 2:16 left put Washington up for good, 73-72.

It seemed as though the other Wildcats were mesmerized by Stoudamire, unable to take their eyes off their leader and unwilling to find their own offense.

“I think the guys were standing around waiting on Salim to make a play,” Arizona Coach Lute Olson said. “We just can’t do that.”

Said Robinson: “I gave a couple of whispers to their other guys. I was telling them, ‘Salim’s not going to pass you the ball. Salim’s feeling it. You’re not going to get it.’ I was telling Salim, ‘You’re going to have to score 100 to beat us.’ Well, I didn’t really tell Salim that. He would have scored 50 then.”

With his seven three-pointers Saturday, Stoudamire did set a tournament record. He also broke the Pac-10 career record with 329, passing Arizona State’s Stevin Smith, who had 323.

But while individual brilliance was entertaining, Washington’s relentless strength and quickness were winning.

The Huskies send all five men to the offensive boards and are quick enough to still get back on defense. They had 17 offensive rebounds against Arizona and gave themselves second and third chances to score. Robinson, who is only 5 feet 9, had five rebounds with his 18 points. The 6-5 Simmons had nine rebounds plus 18 points.

“There’s no question the team that played the hardest won the title,” Olson said. “We were outrebounded, 41-26, and that can’t happen. This is a bump in the road and we need to learn from it.”

Although the Huskies beat Utah, Oklahoma and Alabama to start the season and added nonconference wins over North Carolina State and Houston later, and although they had an RPI ranking of No. 5 before Saturday, the experts don’t seem to consider them worthy of any better than an NCAA No. 2 seeding. But maybe they should be.

“We’ll let the committee make as fair a decision as they can,” Romar said, “on someone who just won the conference tournament in the conference ranked second in the country. I think we have made a case for ourselves to have a top seed of some kind. But we’ll let the committee decide that.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The in crowd

The automatic bids won Saturday and the conference championships to be determined today:

Saturday’s automatic bids to the NCAA tournament:

Pacific 10 Conference

Washington (27-5)

Big West Conference

Utah State (24-7)

America East Conference

Vermont (24-6)

Atlantic 10 Conference

George Washington (22-7)