Postgame: UCLA got the lead up to 10 early in the second half, Huskies cut it all the way back down to tie with about 12 minutes left, but they couldn't close the deal. The final score is a bit deceptive ... the result of several late nothing-to-lose fouls.

"We were not able to get stops," UW coach Lorenzo Romar said. "We turned the ball over. We battled back, but we could not get stops. They are a tough team at home. Dragovic got them going. He did a good job of opening up their offense."

UW remains atop the Pac-10 standings, but only by a half game ahead of UCLA, Arizona State and Cal.

Justin Dentmon led the Huskies with 22 points. Jon Brockman had 16 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.

The Huskies also have a few things to work when the work out Friday at USC's Galen Center. They hurt its own cause Thursday with 17 turnovers. They allowed UCLA to hit eight of 17 3-pointers, including a 3-for-3 performance from Josh Shipp and 3 of 7 from Nikola Dragovic.
The Bruins were led by Shipp’s 20, but Darren Collison, Dragovic and Alfred Aboya all scored in double figures.

A tight deadline forced me out of the postgame interview area without time for many quotes.

But here's one from UW's Quincy Pondexter, who had 12 points, seven rebounds and an extremely solid second half: “It’s very tough. They came out and played with 100 percent of their heart. They’re a very competitive team, a well-coached team, and they did everything in their powers to make sure we didn’t come in here and sneak out a win.”

And this from a very complimentary UCLA coach Ben Howland: “I thought it was an outstanding win against a very good team. I think Lorenzo Romar, Cameron Dollar and that entire staff have done an unbelievable job, and they will be a tough team to beat in the NCAA tournament."

Halftime: UCLA, 34-27. Both teams started sloppily, but UCLA found its footing first, and the Huskies have played from behind most of the way.

Jon Brockman has eight points and 10 rebounds for UW. Justin Dentmon has seven points.

Josh Shipp leads UCLA with 11. Nokola Dragovic had six -- coming on a pair of 3-pointers that hurt the Huskies.

UCLA is hitting 38.2 percent of its shots, UW, 37.1

UW leads in rebounding, 25-20.

Tipoff: The lineups are posted. UW is going with its usual lineup: Brockman, Dentmon, Pondexter, Gant and Thomas. UCLA's lineup includes senior center Alfred Aboya, who had missed some time this week with flu-like symptons, but and was listed as probable.

Pregame: The Huskies are on the court warming up (gold uniforms) for their big match against UCLA. It's the pairing of the nation's No. 20 and 22 teams, and of the Pac-10 leader (UW) with the defending champion (UCLA) just a game and a half behind.

Tip is 8 p.m., and the game is on FSN.

Unfortunately, that late tip is tough on my newspaper deadline, and that in turn makes blogging a little tougher too. But I'll pop in here with news as it happens, then in-game updates, followed by postgame notes and quotes.

UW football coach Steve Sarkisian completed his football staff today, announcing that Dan Cozzetto was hired as offensive line coach and run-game coordinator, and Doug Nussmeier, who was already on the staff as quarterbacks coach, was named offensive coordinator.

Here's more on the coaches from a UW news release:

Nussmeier was hired as the UW’s quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator last month. A star quarterback at Idaho in the early 1990s who went on to a career in the NFL and CFL, he came to Washington after having served as the offensive coordinator at Fresno State last season.

Cozzetto, who was the Huskies’ offensive line coach in 2003, comes to the UW after having spent the 2007 and 2008 seasons as tight ends coach at Arizona State. He had also previously worked as the offensive coordinator and o-line coach at ASU from 1992 to 1999.

The rest of the release is available at GoHuskies.com.

A bit was made this week about UW's Thursday road struggles: they lost the first game of the Arizona trip, then came back to beat Arizona State on Saturday. Then they lost the Thursday game of the Bay Area trip, then bounced back to beat Stanford on Sunday.

UW coach Lorenzo Romar is big on separating short-term flukes from trends, and he doesn't seem to think there's much to the Thursday issue yet. However, a few players did allow that they've got to be as fired up to win the first game as they have been to avoid a sweep in the second what.

As for me, I just think Arizona is a tougher matchup for UW than Arizona State and that Cal is a tougher matchup than Stanford.

On this trip -- UCLA tonight, and USC Saturday -- I'm not so sure. By most definitions, the Bruins are better than the Trojans. But judging from the home games at least, I'm not so sure SC's personnel and style isn't the tougher matchup for the Huskies.

Either way, UW better be ready to give top effort for each, or their reign atop the Pac-10 won't survive to Sunday. The stretch run is here, and it could be a lot of fun.

Here's my preview of the UCLA game, 8 o'clock tonight on FSN. And here's a look from the LA Daily News.