College Basketball / UW 92, Jackson State 76 -- Two Huskies Just Too Tough

Two games into the season, Mark Sanford and Bryant Boston already have established themselves as offensive threats for the University of Washington men's basketball team.

But, after Sanford scored 35 points and Boston 19 in the Huskies' 92-76 victory over Jackson (Miss.) State last night at Edmundson Pavilion, Coach Bob Bender said the scoring pattern can't continue.

"I don't want to see us so dependent, because there are going to be times when they (Sanford and Boston) are not in the game," Bender said after the Huskies improved to 2-0. "We've got to develop other ways to score."

Bender said he wants his perimeter players to develop positive relationships with his post players.

"When the bigs (the posts) are working hard inside, they have to get the ball from the perimeters," Bender said. "On the other hand, the big guys have to understand they're not going to get the ball if they're posting up weak and not doing things aggressively.

"That's the dilemma we're in right now," he said.

After victories over Eastern Washington and Jackson State, Sanford is averaging 24 points a game and Boston 18. Their combined average of 42 is 51 percent of the team's average of 83.

Last night, before 2,834 fans, Sanford took advantage of the game's fast tempo, which reminded him of the conditions in which he thrived during his senior year at Lincoln High in San Diego.

"At Lincoln we just ran the floor and shot every kind of shot we had a chance to shoot," said Sanford, a 6-foot-8 sophomore.

Against Jackson State (0-4), Sanford scored on 11 of 13 field-goal attempts and 12 of 22 free throws to become the 13th Husky to score 35 points or more in one game. It was the most points scored by a Husky since Dion Brown tallied 37 against Portland University in 1990.

Sanford scored half of Washington's 50 second-half points, including 15 of the half's first 22.

When Jackson State cut a 13-point UW lead to 56-50 with 11:17 to play, Sanford led an 11-2 Husky streak by scoring eight straight UW points on a flying jam off an alley-oop pass from Jamie Booker, a short shot from along the baseline and four free throws.

The Tigers never recovered.

"I love to play a game like this," Sanford said. "If we had a chance to play a game like this every night I'd want to be in that game because of the tempo . . . the fast pace."

Sanford joked that he might score 35 again if he could hit a respectable percentage of free-throw attempts.

"It was like I wasn't following through," Sanford said after going 12 for 22. "That's why they were short and hitting the front of the rim."

His 22 attempts just missed the UW record of 23, shared by Dean Parsons (16 of 23 against BYU in 1955) and Bruno Boin (11 of 23 against Oregon State in 1957).

The Huskies' 55 free-throw attempts were one shy of the UW record set in 1967, against Washington State.

Boston, a 6-2 senior guard, was primarily responsible for getting the Huskies off to leads of 8-0, 13-4, 22-10 and 28-13. He scored 10 of the Huskies' first 18 points and 12 of their first 22.

No other Husky scored in double figures.

Booker, a junior guard who hit just one of six shots and scored five points, said the Huskies could be in danger of becoming a two-man offense.

"It could be, but it shouldn't be," Booker said. "Everybody has to step up. We can't just depend on those two guys to score. We've got to look to everybody to score."

Donald Watts, the Huskies' celebrated freshman from Kirkland's Lake Washington High, scored seven points in his home-court debut. His only successful field goal in three attempts was a spectacular reverse layin from along the baseline.

"He's doing a good job in areas where we want him to be," Bender said.

"Defensively, he is having no problem on that end of the floor. He's got to be more aggressive in looking to score."

Jackson State had four players in double figures, led by Milton Arrington, a 6-7 sophomore who scored 16 points. But the Tigers hit only 32 of 74 field-goal attempts (43 percent).

The Huskies have two more games this week - tomorrow night at Idaho and at 1 p.m. Saturday against Kansas State in Edmundson Pavilion.