SEATTLE — Without its spark, Oregon couldn’t find a way to light its fuse Saturday.
Washington, meanwhile, was all fired up.
The Ducks (18-7 overall, 8-6 Pacific-10 Conference) kept the NCAA Tournament selection committee scratching its head after their fourth Pac-10 road loss in seven tries, this time a 78-66 defeat to the Huskies before a sold-out crowd of 10,000 at Edmunson Pavillion.
Oregon tied a season low by shooting 33.3 percent from the field, while Washington (9-15, 4-11) snapped a five-game losing skid by hitting 50 percent of its shots.
In their first meeting of the season last month, the Ducks blew out the Huskies, 91-66, at McArthur Court. The difference this time?
“We were at home,” first-year Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar said.
Even more significant than the Huskies’ home-court advantage was the notable absence of Oregon guard Andre Joseph. The Ducks’ most productive bench player, Joseph didn’t play in the second half after he had what head coach Ernie Kent called an emotional “meltdown.”
Joseph and assistant coach John Cooper had a heated discussion — with Cooper doing most of the talking — during a timeout with 11:50 remaining in the game and the Ducks trailing 44-43. Joseph had four points and three fouls in 12 minutes in the first half but only got off the bench in the second half during his exchange with Cooper.

“I certainly thought that took away from the game,” Kent said. “(Joseph) needed a cooling off period. He needed to calm down
a little.”
Joseph met with the media briefly after the game but was pulled away by a member of the Oregon media services office before he could explain his side of the story.
“It’s something he’s going to have to work through, and we’re going to have to work through with him,” Kent said. “We’ll evaluate the situation and go from there.”
As Joseph melted on the bench, Oregon was flattened on the floor. Without Joseph, Oregon’s third-leading scorer, Kent relied on heavy second-half minutes from Luke Ridnour (20 minutes), Luke Jackson (19), Ian Crosswhite (17) and James Davis (15) — and it showed.
“Some of those mistakes we made were fatigue mistakes down the stretch,” Kent said.
Washington’s Jeffrey Day threw down a thunderous rebound dunk with 6:30 left and freshman Brandon Roy did the same less than a minute later to energize the crowd and spark a decisive 9-0 run for the Huskies (9-15, 4-11).
Oregon had battled back from a 14-point first-half deficit to get back in the game. Crosswhite hit consecutive 3-pointers to give Oregon a 43-42 lead with 13 minutes to play. A minute later, Jackson tipped in his own miss to put the Ducks ahead 45-44, but that would be their last lead.
“We were battling through a lot of adversity,” Kent said. “We were good at responding, and even taking control of the game, at one point in the second half.”
Ridnour paced Oregon with 20 points and six assists — but had eight of Oregon’s 15 turnovers. Davis scored 15 points for the Ducks, and Crosswhite added 14. Jackson finished with just eight points on 3-of-13 shooting and nine rebounds.
“There’s no excuse,” Davis said. “On the road, it’s just tough to win sometimes.”
Or, in Oregon’s case, it’s always tough to win at Washington. The Ducks have now lost two straight in Seattle and four of their last
six here.
Curtis Allen led the Huskies with 17 points. Nate Robinson, Washington’s freshman guard, who’s generously listed at 5-foot-9-inches, finished with 15 points but was most impressive with his defense of Ridnour.
Kent called the Huskies “a really aggressive basketball team,” particularly on defense, where the Dawgs hounded the Ducks.
“They played tough defense,” Ridnour said. “We didn’t get some calls we could of got, but you can’t use that as an excuse.”
“Sometimes the game goes to the aggressor,” Kent said.
Ridnour missed a free throw with 1:31 left in the game, snapping a record-setting streak of 62 consecutive free throws made.
“So what?” Ridnour said when asked about the Pac-10 and school-record streak. “I’m trying to win games. That don’t matter to me.”