The Beavers never went away, but the Huskies hung on to take their Pac-10 opener, 76-70. Quincy Pondexter led all scorers with 20 points. Isaiah Thomas had 19.

But let’s just assume that you’ve got other plans in mind for your new years eve and cut straight to the skimming part:

Star of the game: Isaiah Thomas provided 19 points, including 13 — and a lot of energy — in the first half.

Key stats: Both teams had 17 turnovers. UW won the battle of the boards, 40-30.

Quotable: “Oregon State is tough to play against. They do a good job of not letting you get away from them. I told our guys it’s hard to make them go away, the way they play. But give our guys a lot of credit. We made probably too many mental mistakes tonight, but I thought in the first half once we got going our defensive pressure was very good. That allowed us to get out in front.” — Lorenzo Romar

Notes: UW played without sophomore Scott Suggs, who was out with a stomach illness. Romar said Suggs is expected back at practice Friday morning and should be ready for Oegon on Saturday. … UW announced that the Huskies will wear black uniforms in their Jan. 30 home game against Washington State. The school also is encouraging fans to wear black as part of a “blackout” promotion.

Finally, thanks for reading all year. See you in 2010. (By the way, is that going to be spoken as “Two thousand ten” or “Twenty ten”?)

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With the Pac-10 season about to begin, here’s an updated look at how the league race shapes up (with teams listed in their predicted order of finish from the preseason media poll):

1. CALIFORNIA
Preconference numbers: 8-4 record. Jerome Randle, 19.3 ppg and 4.6 apg; Jamal Boykin, 7.2 rpg. Leads Pac-10 in free-throw percentage (.749).
Conference outlook: They’ve had trouble getting their best guys together on the floor. But with players like Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher and a coach like Mike Montgomery, the Golden Bears figure to contend the whole way.

2. WASHINGTON
Preconference numbers: 9-2. 17th ranked. Quincy Pondexter, 21.9 ppg and 8.4 apg; Venoy Overton, 2.9 apg. Highest-scoring team in Pac-10 (83.5 ppg).
Conference outlook: The lack of either outside shooting or a dominant post usually means big trouble. However, these Huskies are managing to work around that as long as they play smart defense and share the ball.
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UW No. 2 scorer Isaiah Thomas practiced today after turning his ankle Sunday against San Francisco. It is expected that he will play Thursday when the Huskies open Pac-10 play against Oregon State.

Here’s a quick look at that one:

OREGON STATE (6-5)
AT NO. 17 WASHINGTON (9-2)
7 p.m. Thursday, Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
TV: FSN. Radio: 950-AM.

Series: UW leads, 149-136. The Huskies have won four straight overall and six straight at home.
Statistical leaders: For OSU – Seth Tarver, 13.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg and 2.2 apg. For UW – F Quincy Pondexter, 21.9 ppg

…

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In our Wednesday paper we a look at what the Aughts (is that really the best name we could come up with for this decade?) meant to the UW basketball program.

For starters, though, here are our selections for some of the highlights and lowlights of the decade. (For these purposes, the all-decade team was defined as “best player the Huskies have had at the position this decade,” and therefore the relatively low career numbers of one-and-done Spencer Hawes, for example, isn’t held against him.)

ALL-DECADE TEAM
PG Will Conroy
Fierce competitor and UW’s all-time assists

…

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UW No. 2 scorer Isaiah Thomas was held out of practice yesterday after rolling his right ankle in the second half of the Huskies win over San Francisco. He was hoping to do a little more today and then a little more on Thursday against Oregon State.

“It’s doing better,” he said. “Hopefully I’ll be ready for Thursday. …. I’ve been in treatment all day. Yesterday I was in there for five or six hours. … I probably will (Thursday) but I’ve got to do the best I can. It’s Pac-10 so I have to be as ready as I …

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Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott announced today that Sami Whitcomb was named the conference’s women’s basketball Player of the Week for Dec. 22-27.

However, Quincy Pondexter did not win this week’s men’s honor despite scoring a combined 47 points in UW wins over Texas A&M and San Francisco.

This week’s men’s award went to senior guard Mike Gerrity of USC. Gerrity also won MVP honors at the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii, after leading the Trojans to the tournament title with wins over Western Michigan, Saint Mary’s and No. 20 UNLV. Gerrity averaged 15.7 points, 2.3 assists, 3 rebounds and 1.3 steals, while shooting 18-for-29 (62 percent).

Pondexter was nominated this week, along with Nic Wise of Arizona, Malcolm Armstead of Oregon, Calvin Haynes of Oregon State, Reeves Nelson of UCLA and Klay Thompson of Washington State.

Pondexter had previous won the award on Nov. 16 and Dec. 7.

Here’s part of the Pac-10 release on
Whitcomb, who…

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Wins over Texas A&M and San Francisco moved the Huskies up in both polls released today.

Washington moved to No. 17 in the Associated Press media poll and to No. 16 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll.

Here are both complete polls.

Washington remains the only Pac-10 team in either poll, although USC and California received votes in the AP poll, and both of those schools got votes from the coaches along with Washington State and Arizona State.

Here’s our game story.

The game resembled one of those old Roadrunner cartoons where there the roadrunner was always able to beep-beep away into a swirl of dust any time the coyote seemed to move within reach.

Washington let the Dons hang around a lot, but UW never really seemed in danger. It was a win, but not the 40-minute, clicking-on-all-cylinders springboard into league play that they might have hoped.

“The biggest concern that I had coming into this game was after a two-day break and practicing at 6 o’clock last night and coming back for a 12 o’clock game,” coach Lorenzo Romar said. “I thought the second half for whatever reason we were moving in slow motion. What really hurt us was the offensive rebounding by San Francisco. They scored 17 points on second-chance shots. Sixteen offensive rebounds, that’s too many. We have struggled with that as of late… and we have to do a much better job.”

“We still pulled out a victory and we still had some good positive things that came about it,” Quincy Pondexter said. “But it wasn’t the win that we wanted.”

On the plus side, Romar found playing time for most of his roster, as 10 Huskies drew at least 13 minutes on the court. They were led by Pondexter, who had 22 points on 10-of-12 shooting from the field. Overton had 10 points, five assists three steals and only one turnover. Big men Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Tyreese Breshers each had six rebounds, while scoring 13 and 12 points respectively. The Huskies held the Dons to 39 percent shooting and blocked 11 shots.

On the minus side, Washington was outrebounded 44-35, and the Dons’ 16 offensive rebounds led to 17 second-chance points. Individually, UW No. 2 scorer Isaiah Thomas managed only four points – matching his career low and giving him back-to-back games of single-digit scoring for the first time in his college career. He hit one of nine shots from the field, but provided six assists and two steals.

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