The Pac-10 season is nearing the halfway point for the Washington basketball team, with Oregon and Oregon State the only teams left to play before the second time around. It has not been the banner season that many pundits and fans were predicting in early November.

The Huskies (11-7 overall, 1-6 Pac-10) have plummeted out of the national Top 25 rankings, and must now work on damage control if the NCAA tournament is to remain an open possibility.

“We have to stay together,” said freshman Spencer Hawes. “That’s the hardest thing to do when you’re losing. We have to win as a team instead of going our separate ways.”

Part of getting better as a team will be how the Huskies respond to the problems they face the rest of the way.

Offense: Grade B-

Scoring points has never been a problem for any of coach Lorenzo Romar’s previous four teams, and this one has been no different. Washington sits comfortably as second in the conference in scoring, at 81.4 points per game, but it has been a different type of scoring at Montlake.

Instead of the breakneck offense of years past, the Huskies employ a more half-court set to better utilize the talents of Hawes and fellow post Jon Brockman. The fruits of that have been evident in the stat lines of both big men. Hawes — in his first college season — is averaging 15.2 points per game, and Brockman is set at 13.2.

Aside from those two, though, finding any consistency on offense has been taxing to say the least. After a blazing hot start that had him atop the team in scoring, Quincy Pondexter has cooled considerably under the scrutiny of tight Pac-10 defenses. The same can be said for Adrian Oliver, a fellow freshman.

What has truly held down this offense, though, is the inconsistent play at point guard. Justin Dentmon lost his job after the Los Angeles road trip, and has not had a great season to date. Collectively, the backcourt has been a liability, averaging a league-worst 16.4 turnovers a game, and with 16.56 assists per contest, the ratio of turnovers to assists is a terrible 1.01.

Outlook: Brockman and Hawes will continue to dominate down low, but the team needs someone to step up in the backcourt, whether it is Dentmon, Oliver or current starter Ryan Appleby. In order to be successful, the team has to trim the turnovers and continue to move the ball around. Too many times Washington will run down the play clock without getting off a quality shot, something that must change immediately.

Defense: Grade D

Jon Brockman, Husky captain: “Defense has always been one of those things to get us going. We need to focus a lot more on defense. We need to stop thinking about how many points we’re going to get and start thinking about how many stops we can get.”

If one thing can be pointed at as the reason for Washington’s struggles it has been the collective effort — or rather lack thereof — of the players on the defensive end of the court.

The Huskies are dead last in the conference in points allowed, averaging 76.4 per game. Most of that has been a lack of effort to get in front of shooters. On several occasions, opposing teams have “shot the lights out.” Once or twice, this could easily be explained as a team getting hot. But what has transpired during the last seven games can only be called a trend.

Romar has been happy with the effort his team puts forth in practice, but some things have not translated into game day. One of those things is guarding the perimeter. More often than not, opposing sharp shooters have an open look in the span of the shot clock.

This was present in the most recent gut-checking loss to Washington State. The Cougars shot 53.6 percent from the floor and 50 percent from beyond the arc on their way to a 28-point bloodletting of the Huskies.

If there has been any bright spot on the defensive end, it has been Washington’s rebounding. As of this week, the UW ranks first in the league in rebounding (40.2 per game) and rebounding margin (+9.2 per game). This is due in large part to the work that Brockman does on the glass. He averages 9.7 boards per game, just .1 shy of the league lead.

Outlook: Washington will soon begin its second go-around with Pac-10 foes, giving the team another shot at shutting down opposing offenses, but it starts with toughness. Romar has been critical of the lack of defensive intensity, as well as his team’s willingness to fight through the opposition’s offensive sets.

Looking Ahead:

The remaining conference schedule is much kinder than before, starting with five of the next seven games coming inside the friendly confines of Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

In order to have a legitimate chance to reach the postseason, the Huskies will have to take advantage of the home court as well as win some games on the road — which includes a late road trip to Big East powerhouse Pittsburgh on Feb. 17.

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