Jan. 6, 2007
SEATTLE (AP) - Ryan Appleby saw an opportunity and took advantage of it.
Appleby made six 3-pointers and finished with 20 points to lead No. 24 Washington past Arizona State 64-53 Saturday night.
The Sun Devils focused their defense on Spencer Hawes, Washington's 7-foot freshman center who was leading the team with 16.5 points per game. Hawes was held to just nine points but that left plenty of room for Appleby, who made six of eight 3s.
"We knew coming in they were going to play a grind-it-out kind of game," Appleby said. "I knew I had to knock down shots to help spread the zone out. You saw in the second half they started coming out on me a little further, which opened up the block for our big guys."
Washington (11-4, 1-3), a preseason contender for the Pac-10 title, was one of three teams without a win in the league entering the game. The Huskies lost their first three Pac-10 games to Southern California, UCLA and Arizona, getting outscored by 12.7 points per game and allowing their opponents to shoot 56 percent.
"Glad we got a win in the books," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. "We just got to keep getting better."
Jeff Pendergraph scored 18 points and freshman guard Derek Glasser had 13 for the Sun Devils (6-9, 0-4), who shot just 34.7 percent. Arizona State has lost five straight.
Appleby, a 40.2 percent shooter behind the arc, made two big 3s in the final 5 minutes to help hold off the Sun Devils. The Huskies led 50-44 with just under 5 minutes left when Appleby connected for a 3-pointer to extend the lead to nine. He hit another big 3 exactly 2 minutes later for a 56-46 lead with 2:36 remaining.
Jon Brockman had 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Huskies. It was his seventh double-double this season.
"We got that one out of the way. We have to just keep pushing forward and not look back at all," Brockman said. "They definitely slowed it down. It felt like just a slow game of sets, back and forth."
Arizona State shot just 26.9 percent (7-of-23) in the second half.
"We have to convert more than 27 percent of our shots in the second half," Sun Devils coach Herb Sendek said. "It's hard to beat anybody, especially a nationally ranked team shooting like that. We give Washington credit, they played good defense."
The Devils also played solid defense overall. The Huskies were the second-highest scoring team in the conference at 86.3 points per game. They were held to a season low in points.
"Obviously, what they were doing was that they weren't going to give up much in the paint," Romar said, "and they made us beat them from the outside."
Pendergraph had 12 points in the first half but Appleby hit three 3-pointers to help Washington take a 31-28 lead at the break.
"When things aren't going right on the inside," Hawes added, "we always need a counter like that (Appleby). We just kind of made adjustments and took advantage of it."