Washington 59, Arizona St. 51

There were a little less than eight minutes left, underdog Arizona State had outscored Washington 21-9 in the second half to take a four-point lead, and Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar had seen enough.

So during a timeout, Romar implored his team to get it together, slamming a playbook to the floor and yelling: "We're about to go home."

The Huskies responded, outscoring ASU 18-6 after that for a 59-51 victory over the Sun Devils on Wednesday night in the first round of the Pac-10 tournament.

"I think at that point we were at a crossroads," Romar said afterward. "I just felt at that time we did not have a whole lot of energy. That was not a time to not have energy."

Jon Brockman had 16 points and 10 rebounds and freshman Spencer Hawes and Justin Dentmon scored 13 points each for seventh-seeded Washington (19-12), who will meet second-seeded Washington State (24-6) to complete the quarterfinal round Thursday night after third-seeded Southern California (21-10) plays sixth-seeded Stanford (18-11).

Eighth-seeded California (15-16) beat Oregon State 70-51 earlier Wednesday night, and will face No. 1 seed UCLA (26-4) in the second game of the day. Fourth-seeded (23-7) plays fifth-seeded Arizona (20-9) in the opener at Staples Center.

Dentmon's short jumper with 3:53 remaining put Washington ahead for good, and Brockman made another with 2:04 left to make it 52-48.

Ryan Appleby, who made two 3-pointers to give him a school-record 81 this season, converted 5-of-6 foul shots in the final 54 seconds to clinch the victory.

"I'm extremely proud of our guys' mental toughness tonight," Romar said. "When we were down, guys just continued to work. Justin hit some big shots for us."

Washington beat ASU for the 10th straight time, and the victory was the Huskies' third straight following a four-game losing streak that probably eliminated them from NCAA tournament consideration unless they win the Pac-10 tournament.

That would mean winning four games in four days on a neutral floor, something no team has done in the five years all 10 schools have been included in the tournament.

Washington went 17-2 at home and 1-10 on the road during the regular season.

The Huskies lost to the 11th-ranked Cougars twice this season, but by a total of just six points.

"It's hard to beat a team three times," Dentmon said.

Romar said it didn't matter who the Huskies are playing.

"It's another game we've got to win," he said. "The opposition, to us, is irrelevant. We've got to defend, we've got to take care of the basketball, we've got to be sound."

Freshman Jerren Shipp scored 13 points and Jeff Pendergraph had nine points and seven rebounds for the Sun Devils.

Tenth-seeded ASU finished Herb Sendek's first season as its head coach with an 8-22 record. The Sun Devils failed to win a tournament game for the sixth straight year.

"Washington really hurt us on the boards," Sendek said, noting the Huskies' 39-28 rebounding advantage. "We had talked about limiting our turnovers to less than 10. Sixteen is hard to swallow."

Three-pointers by Shipp and freshman Derek Glasser capped a 15-6 run to start the second half and gave the Sun Devils a 39-38 lead, and two foul shots by Glasser with 8:28 remaining put ASU on top 45-41.

Romar exploded less than a minute later, and the Huskies took over.

ASU, the Pac-10's poorest shooting team, made 8-of-13 shots to start the game for an 18-8 lead in the opening seven minutes.

Suddenly, both teams stopped scoring, and the Huskies seemed frustrated by ASU's physical play on defense.

"They did a wonderful job. You've got to give them credit," ASU's Serge Angounou said. "It came down to second-chance points and turnovers."

Washington was 4-of-16 from the floor and trailed 21-10 before Dentmon made a 3-pointer with 7 1/2 minutes left before halftime, triggering a 22-3 run that gave the Huskies a 32-24 halftime lead.

Brockman and Hawes scored six points each and freshman Quincy Pondexter added four before Dentmon made another 3-pointer to finish the spurt.

The Huskies scored the final 15 points of the half after Antwi Atuahene's follow shot with 5:05 remaining put the Sun Devils on top 24-17.

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