SEATTLE — Against his former team, Terrell Brown Jr. came out focused and on fire like a man with a vendetta.
The Husky star sank his first seven shots on a myriad of dribble drives and acrobatic finishes in traffic around the rim to stake the Washington men's basketball team to an early 14-point lead over No. 4 Arizona.
And the 8,503 blackout crowd at Alaska Airlines Arena, which chanted "M-V-P," was loving every minute of masterful showcase in which Brown finished with 29 points.
However, the Huskies squandered Brown's brilliant performance and once he tired, the Wildcats seized momentum, took control and showed why they're an NCAA Tournament title contender while handing UW a humbling 92-68 defeat on Saturday afternoon.
The loss snapped a streak of five straight home wins for Washington, which fell to 13-10 and 8-5 in the Pac-12.
At times, it looked as if was 1 vs. 5.
That's how good Brown was in a game in which he converted 9 of 20 field goals and 11 of 14 free throws. And that's how anemic the other Huskies were while combining to tally 39 points on 12-of-39 field-goal shooting.
Brown canned a jumper in the paint that put Washington up 25-11 with 10:39 left in the first half and the Huskies looked as if they might capture their first win at home against a top-5 team since 2008.
But when Brown left with 7:57 in the first half and UW leading 27-17, everything changed. While he was out, Arizona scored nine straight points and trailed 27-26 before Brown re-entered at the 6:30 mark.
The Wildcats outscored the Huskies 34-11 the rest of the first half and led 45-36 at halftime.
Washington never got any closer in the second half and the game turned into a rout when Arizona went up 65-43 with 12:10 left. The Wildcats outscored the Huskies 47-32 in the second half.
Arizona used its size advantage on the front line to pummel Washington inside and flush a series of dunks that elicited chants of "U-of-A" from the Wildcat fans.
Ben Mathurin finished with 25 points and Azuolas Tubelis had 21 for Arizona (22-2, 12-1), which won its sixth straight game.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats handcuffed Brown in the second half with an army of defenders who eventually wore him down. Brown connected on just 1 of 8 field goals in the second half.
The short-handed Huskies were missing senior guard Daejon Davis who missed his second straight game due to right shoulder injury.
Nate Roberts finished with 10 points and nine rebounds while Emmitt Matthews had 10 points for Washington.
The Huskies travel to Los Angeles next week to face No. 21 USC and No. 12 UCLA.
