The frustration of Washington’s struggles since starting the conference season was evident on the faces of all the players following the 75-47 loss to Washington State (16-3 overall, 5-2 Pac-10) Saturday. Perhaps the most telling was the face of freshman Quincy Pondexter.

Fighting back tears, Pondexter could only say, “It isn’t over.”

The truth of that statement has yet to be seen, as the Huskies (11-7 overall, 1-6 Pac-10) still have 12 games remaining, but the hopes of an NCAA Tournament berth took a major hit after their performance at Washington State.

The Cougars dominated Washington in all aspects of the game. Offensively, they shot 53.6 percent from the field and had 13 second-chance points. Defensively, they held Washington to its lowest point total since Dec. 11, 2001 — against Gonzaga — and forced their opponent into poor shot selection and 12 turnovers.

“Washington State did a heck of a job,” said coach Lorenzo Romar. “They wore us down today. At the end we had an empty gas tank. We cut it down to 11 at the half, but they came out in the second and continued to hit their shots.”

The only positive run the Huskies were able to materialize in 40 minutes of basketball was an 11-2 run in the final 2:36 of the first half. Sophomore Justin Dentmon and junior Ryan Appleby hit three consecutive 3-point shots, and Pondexter added a lay-up before the half to close the deficit to 34-23.

Prior to that, however, WSU had gone on a 15-2 run to expand the lead to 20 points, and held the Huskies scoreless for nearly nine minutes.

As bad as the first half was for Washington’s offense, the second half was worse. Except for a few moments very late in the game, Romar’s team was thoroughly outplayed by Tony Bennett’s upstart Cougars.

The Huskies shot an anemic 25.9 percent from the floor after the break and allowed Washington State to go up by as many as 35.

“I’m not going to make any excuses,” said team captain Jon Brockman. “They were better than us by 40 points, even by 50 points, and they deserve all the credit.”

While the majority of the Huskies could not keep any level of consistency, Brockman did all he could in his 32 minutes of play. He had 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds. He said the Huskies just need to keep their focus going into the next week of games.

“We have to keep hustling,” Brockman said. “There can be no complaining, no whining … play through stuff, play through [the] pain. It’s going to be tough no matter where you play, even if it’s at home.”

With the next challenge being a dangerous Oregon team at home, the sophomore forward reiterated that basketball’s not about Thursday and Saturday nights; it’s about the days leading up to the games — when they practice. Echoing Pondexter, Brockman is not ready to count his team out for the season.

“Whoever wants to write us off, write us off,” he said. “We’ll be back. I’m not throwing in a white towel. Washington basketball is not down. Whoever wants to switch from Husky to Cougar fans go ahead and do it. If you’re going to bail on us like that … when you’re down you find out who your friends are.”

Reach reporter Justin Chartrey at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.