Stanford swats away Huskies

Eighty-four inches separated the Washington and Stanford basketball teams Thursday night at Edmundson Pavilion, all of them belonging to the elongated and highly valued frame of Brook Lopez.

In the first of four Pac-10 home contests -- a stretch expected to show how serious Lorenzo Romar's guys are about returning to the postseason -- the Huskies simply didn't measure up, falling more like 84 feet short in losing 65-51.

The home team had serious matchup problems against the visitors from Stanford, starting with the more offensive-minded of the Cardinal's 7-foot twins -- OK, the one with the close-cropped hair as opposed to his identical sibling's Afro explosion -- as sophomore forward Brook Lopez had his way all evening, scoring a game- and career-best 31 points with 13 rebounds.

"He did a good job of being big," Stanford guard and Seattle native Mitch Johnson said of the only Cardinal player to score in double digits.

"They were monsters," Washington forward Jon Brockman said of both brothers.

It was the worst home loss for the Huskies in four-plus seasons, since Gonzaga hung an 86-62 defeat on them in 2003, and the most points scored by an opposing player at Hec Ed since Eastern Washington's Rodney Stuckey unloaded a 31-point game here last season.

Down went the UW (12-9 overall, 3-5 Pac-10) in a Hec Ed outing that meant a lot, exposing it for the second-division team it is. Off to Washington State headed 14th-ranked Stanford (17-3, 6-2), feeling pretty good about itself after winning in Seattle for the first time in six years.

"I would have liked to see us play with a little more passion with so much at stake," said Romar, his team shooting a season-low 28.8 percent.

An hour before tipoff, Brook and Robin Lopez were hardly the inside henchmen they would become. They were all smiles and hugs and elaborate handshakes as they warmly greeted the UW's Quincy Pondexter, a high school teammate and longtime friend from Fresno. They engaged him in conversation for more than 10 minutes. Then it was time for the twins to go to work.

Sturdy and mobile, Brook Lopez roamed the key unrestrained, taking direct feeds down low, scoring without trouble and forcing the UW into its earliest zone of the season, a 2-3 defensive alignment.

"I just tried to keep doing what I was doing," said Brook Lopez, who connected on 11 of 17 shots, and 9 of 12 free throws. "I was getting good looks. My teammates gave me good angles to score. I was just trying to finish."

Defending him was only half the battle. A double shot of Lopez inside clearly troubled the Huskies on the offensive end. They couldn't get comfortable, practically couldn't get off a shot at times. It didn't matter who was taking them, either.

Inside the game's opening four minutes, the UW had three field-goal attempts swatted away in overpowering fashion. In order, former Cardinal guard Tim Morris and Brockman and Artem Wallace had balls spiked halfway to the Space Needle. Brook Lopez sandwiched two of the rejections around one by his defensive-motivated brother.

Each Lopez finished with three blocks, supplying all but one of Stanford's total. The Cardinal also enjoyed a 41-36 rebounding edge.

"That size really bothered us," Romar said.

Pondexter came off the bench to lead the Huskies with 15 points, while Brockman had another double-double performance, with 13 points and 13 rebounds, but wasn't nearly the factor he usually is. His shooting suffered mightily, 4 of 12 from the field and 5-for-11 from the foul line. Both Robin Lopez and a groin injury bothered him.

"I think the biggest thing is we did a great job defensively on Brockman," said Johnson, a former AAU teammate. "That's the hardest Jon has had to work. He usually gets his against the world."

The Huskies led just 5-2 and 5-4 before coming completely unraveled, with Romar substituting at will, looking for someone, anyone, to stand up to these California goliaths and finding no one. Anthony Goods' two foul shots put Stanford ahead for good, 6-5, and ignited an 11-0 run that set the tone for the remainder of the game.

The UW deficit reached 14 when Brook Lopez wheeled and hit a foul-line jumper, giving him 15 points as the game headed for halftime. A Ryan Appleby 3-pointer left the Huskies down 33-22 at the break, but it was the briefest of reprieves.

Things got worse when play restarted. Just 10 seconds into the second half, Brockman went for a shot, only to have Brook Lopez slap it in his face.

The Stanford player then returned to his specialty. He followed an Appleby 3-pointer with consecutive three-point plays to enable the Cardinal to push out to a commanding 39-24 advantage. By now, Lopez had 20 points. There was still 17:49 left to play.

"We couldn't control Brook Lopez," said Romar, dealt only his second double-digit home loss in six years at UW. "He impacted the game as much as any player since we've been here."

STANFORD 65, UW MEN 51

		FG	FT	Reb
Stanford	Min	M-A	M-A	O-T	A	PF	Pts
BLopez	36	11-17	9-12	5-13	3	3	31
Washington	35	1-5	0-1	1-5	3	2	2
RLopez	20	2-4	2-2	0-2	0	4	6
Johnson	30	2-7	3-4	0-7	6	2	8
Goods	12	1-4	2-2	0-1	1	3	4
Fields	22	2-5	3-4	1-5	1	2	8
Shiller	6	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Hill	22	1-4	0-2	2-3	3	1	2
Brown	1	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Owens	1	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	2	0
Finger	15	2-3	0-0	1-2	1	2	4
Totals	200	22-52	19-27	11-41	18	21	65

Percentages: FG .423, FT .704. 3-Point goals: 2-12, .167 (Fields 1-3, Johnson 1-4, B.Lopez 0-1, Shiller 0-1, Hill 0-1, Goods 0-2). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 7 (B.Lopez 3, R.Lopez 3, Washington). Turnovers: 12 (B.Lopez 5, Johnson 2, R.Lopez 2, Goods, Shiller). Steals: 5 (Washington, Johnson, R.Lopez, B.Lopez, Fields).

		FG	FT	Reb
Washington	Min	M-A	M-A	O-T	A	PF	Pts
Wallace	6	0-1	0-0	0-2	0	1	0
Brockman	34	4-12	5-11	4-13	0	3	13
Overton	16	0-1	3-4	1-1	2	3	3
Morris	16	2-7	0-0	1-1	0	2	4
Appleby	33	4-9	0-0	0-1	0	3	10
Smith	5	0-0	0-0	0-1	0	2	0
Dentmon	25	2-8	1-2	0-4	1	0	5
Bryan-Amaning	13	0-4	0-0	0-1	0	3	0
Holiday	8	0-1	0-0	0-1	0	1	0
Pondexter	28	3-5	8-12	4-8	1	1	15
Wolfinger	16	0-4	1-3	0-0	0	3	1
Totals	200	15-52	18-32	12-36	4	22	51

Percentages: FG .288, FT .563. 3-Point goals: 3-12, .250 (Appleby 2-7, Pondexter 1-1, Wolfinger 0-1, Holiday 0-1, Morris 0-1, Dentmon 0-1). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 3 (Morris, Holiday, Brockman). Turnovers: 11 (Brockman 4, Overton 3, Morris 2, Wolfinger, Wallace). Steals: 7 (Bryan-Amaning 2, Overton 2, Brockman, Morris, Dentmon).

Stanford	33	32--65
Washington	22	29--51

A--9,373. Officials--VHarris, CRastatter, MIrving.