SEATTLE – One day after a lengthy team meeting, Washington was holding another. This time it was after losing for the seventh time in eight games.
A season that once seemed promising for the Huskies is spiraling away.
"Just tired of losing. Any competitor doesn't get comfortable with losing. We lost seven out of eight. Since I've been here, I don't think that's ever happened," Washington guard Abdul Gaddy said. "I don't like losing at anything. When we play summer leagues, we don't like losing to anybody. When we play one-on-one with each other, nobody likes losing. We're a competitive team. For this to show we've lost seven out of eight, that's just not us. That's what's frustrating for us."
Johnathan Loyd scored all 11 of his points in the second half, Damyean Dotson finished with 13 and No. 23 Oregon snapped a two-game road losing streak with a 65-52 win over Washington on Wednesday night.
The Ducks (20-5, 9-3 Pac-12) had dropped three of four, losing their grasp on sole possession of first place in the conference. They regained it for at least for 24 hours, moving a half-game ahead of Arizona and UCLA, who both play on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, Washington (13-12, 5-7) is still wondering what happened in the past month to where they went from starting conference play 4-0 to now holding down ninth place.
Washington shot just 35 percent and was 2 of 13 on 3-point attempts against the Ducks. Gaddy led the Huskies with 17 points, but leading scoring C.J. Wilcox continued to struggle since developing a foot injury that has limited his practice time. Wilcox missed his first six shots and finished just 3 of 13 for nine points.
The 52 points scored were tied for the third fewest by Washington in Lorenzo Romar's tenure at the school. It was the first time the Ducks swept Washington in the regular season since 1995.
"Our team is very, very disappointed in the situation, and in themselves," Romar said. "We're all disappointed, but I don't think our team is ready to quit at all. I think this team is still going to stay strong."
Oregon got a scare it didn't need when Loyd was fouled jumping for pass with 1:36 left. As he came down his left knee buckled and he stayed down on the floor for about a minute before walking very slowly to the Ducks' bench. He eventually walked off the floor at the end of the game on his own with only a slight limp.
Oregon is already without starting point guard Dominic Artis, who missed his sixth straight game with a foot injury. Loyd said afterward he didn't think the injury was serious.
"I think I'll be fine. I don't think I'll miss any games or anything like that," Loyd said. "I was a little nervous because when I was in high school, I did the same thing, hyperextended it, and I was out for two months. I don't think this one's that severe, though."
The victory gave the Ducks 20 victories for the 14th time in school history. It would have come sooner if Oregon hadn't stumbled with consecutive road losses at Stanford and California, followed by a home loss to Colorado. Oregon got back on track by beating Utah at home last Saturday and then followed up by extending Washington's slide.
Arsalan Kazemi finished with 11 points, Carlos Emory added 10 and E.J. Singler had nine for the Ducks.
"I thought our defensive intensity was really good," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "Our guys got a lot of hands on the balls and our activity was pretty good."
Washington closed to 35-32 in the opening stages of the second half before Oregon went on an 11-2 run. The Ducks scored six straight points, including a pair of baskets by Kazemi. Shawn Kemp Jr.'s follow dunk briefly stemmed the run, but the Ducks scored the next five to take their biggest lead of the game to that point. Oregon stretched the advantage to 44-34 with 13:14 left after Kazemi made one of two free throws. Loyd then stole a lazy inbounds pass by Wilcox and raced the other way for a layup, and the lead was 12 with 12 minutes left.
Washington tried to make another charge with six straight points of its own, but Tony Woods followed Loyd's wild layup attempt with an emphatic dunk just before the shot clock expired to push the lead back to 48-40 with 7:37 left. The teams traded empty possessions and Loyd hit a wide-open 3 for an 11-point lead with 6:47 remaining.
That proved to be enough. Washington trimmed the deficit to seven and had a chance to get closer, but Aziz N'Diaye missed the front end of a one-and-one. Loyd then hit a jumper at the top of the key and Dotson scored on a fast break to push the lead back to 11.
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