Huskies know 'season is on the line'

SEATTLE (AP) -Four-plus months of Washington's basketball season has come down to three days. Opponents and setting don't really matter.

Whether it's against the unusual zone defenses of Oregon State and Arizona State, whether the cavernous Staples Center in Los Angeles is as lifeless as usual or not, the Huskies must do one thing during the wide-open Pac-10 tournament to claw their way into the NCAA tournament: win.

At least two times. Three times if they want to make sure of it.

``I don't care if it's in an alley or on an ice rink. The entire season is on the line,'' coach Lorenzo Romar said of the first-round matchup Thursday night against sixth-seeded Oregon State (14-16, 8-10 Pac-10).

``Right now, we're in a dogfight to make it into the NCAA tournament,'' Romar said of his Huskies (21-9, 11-7). ``If we're not motivated by that, we shouldn't be playing.''

Oh, these Dawgs are barking for a fight. Finally.

``We know when we play like we can, we can play with anybody in the country,'' said forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning, who had 20 points and 11 rebounds in last weekend's win over the Beavers. It was Washington's ninth win in 10 games against Oregon State. ``We've been building for this all season.''

They were broken in mid-January, 1-3 in the league and in last place. Then Quincy Pondexter's All-Pac-10 season went into overdrive, second-leading scorer Isaiah Thomas briefly got benched before becoming more of an all-around guard, Justin Holiday emerged as a lock-down defender and the forgotten Bryan-Amaning started dominating inside consistently for the first time in three years.

Washington has won nine of 11 games, including its first four road wins of the season. The last was at Oregon State on Saturday.

But a first-round exit from the Pac-10 tournament would probably tarnish all of that in the eyes of the selection committee.

``They look at your last 10 games or so,'' Pondexter said. ``They see we're steadily getting better. I think we're a team many think is dangerous. Hopefully, they think we deserve to be in.

``We've battled hard. We've had our ups and downs, but we've played pretty good basketball here down the stretch.''

All of that won't matter if the Huskies don't finish with a strong showing in Los Angeles.

First comes Oregon State's 1-3-1 zone defense, with conference defensive player of the year Seth Tarver at the top. The 6-foot-5 Tarver and his teammates gave Thomas nightmares during his freshman season. But this season, Thomas' sharp drives past Tarver and deft passes through the teeth of the Beavers' zone is the primary reason Washington won 76-70 in Seattle and 82-70 in Corvallis.

Romar is still smiling over the play Thomas made in the second win. The 5-foot-8 guard split two Beavers. When it looked as if he'd launch a runner shot in the lane, the other three defenders collapsed on Thomas. Instead, he found Bryan-Amaning for an easy layup while the big guy was fouled by a late-arriving Beaver.

If Thomas plays like that again and Oregon State, second in the Pac-10 in points allowed, again has no answer, Washington will have a third win this season over the Beavers. That hasn't happened since 1953.

The Huskies would then be likely to face second-seeded Arizona State (22-9, 12-6) on Friday in a possible play-in game for the NCAA tournament.

``Oregon State has a couple of zones, whereas Arizona State has about 15 zone defenses,'' Romar said.

When Holiday missed Washington's trip to the desert in January because of academic technicalities, Washington scored a season-low 51 points while the Sun Devils' outside shooting scorched the Huskies in a 17-point rout. When Holiday was there for the rematch in Seattle, ASU shot blanks, Thomas responded to a benching the game before to solve the zone and score 17 points and Washington won by 23.

Wins Thursday and Friday would put Washington into the Pac-10 tournament title game. Pondexter thinks the Huskies need to win that, too, for the automatic bid that would take the decision out of the NCAA's hands.

``Our goal is to win this tournament,'' Pondexter said. ``At that point, there's no more questions of whether you are a 'bubble' team or not.''