NCAA Tournament In Progress: New Mexico, Washington Square Off In San Jose

For more information about this game, check out our Washington blog at the UW Dawg Pound.

San Jose, CA (Sports Network) - Quincy Pondexter poured in 18 points and pulled down five rebounds, as the 11th-seeded Washington Huskies dominated the third-seeded New Mexico Lobos, 82-64, in second-round play of the East Region.

Matthew Bryan-Amaning added 15 points and nine rebounds for the Huskies (26-9), who have won nine in a row and are 14-2 since January 26. Isaiah Thomas made four three-pointers on his way to 15 points while dishing out seven assists.

Elston Turner had 10 points off the bench for Washington, which knocked off sixth-seeded Marquette by an 80-78 final in the first round on Thursday.

The Huskies, who will be appearing in the Sweet 16 for the fifth time in school history, will next play either 10th-seeded Missouri or second-seeded West Virginia.

"We did a great job of forcing our tempo on them," Pondexter said. "We knew they were a transition team going into this game, and we wanted to show that we have another level of fast break and defensive intensity. That's what really wore them down and helped us get the win."

Dairese Gary carried New Mexico (30-5) with 25 points. Darington Hobson chipped in 11 points and nine boards for the Lobos, who have made it to the second round seven times in program history but have still never won consecutive games in the NCAA Tournament.

Roman Martinez added 10 points off the bench for New Mexico, which snuck past 14th-seeded Montana, 62-57, on Thursday.

Trailing 15-11 with less than 15 minutes left in the first half, the Huskies went on an amazing 30-12 run to build a 14-point lead. Pondexter tallied eight points during the burst, which Turner capped with two free throws and a three- pointer to make it 41-27 with about 2 1/2 minutes remaining.

Gary scored the final 13 points of the half for New Mexico, which trailed 44-32 at the break.

Gary then opened the scoring in the second half with a jumper, but it was all Washington from that point on. An ensuing 20-7 spurt by the Huskies essentially put the game away.

Bryan-Amaning had six points during the early stages of the stretch, which Turner ended with a jumper to give Washington a comfortable 64-41 lead. The Huskies cruised to victory from there.

The Huskies lead the all-time series with the Lobos, 4-2...Washington shot 48.5 percent from the field, while New Mexico made 39.4 percent of its shots...The Lobos turned the ball over 11 times, compared to five for the Huskies...Washington has advanced to its fourth Sweet 16 since 1998...The Huskies are now 17-15 in their 14 NCAA Tournament appearances all-time. The Huskies are 7-4 in NCAA Tournament games under coach Lorenzo Romar...Pondexter moved into sole possession of third place on the UW career scoring chart with 1,779 points in his four seasons on the team. On Saturday, he passed Bob Houbregs, who had 1,774 from 1951-53.