With its hopes solely placed on winning the Pac-10 tournament in order to reach the NCAA tournament, the Washington basketball team knew that it had to turn around its fortunes in a hurry with just two games remaining in the regular season.

With that in mind, the Huskies (17-12 overall, 7-10 Pac-10) came out last night and took care of business at home against USC (21-9 overall, 11-6 Pac-10). In front of the home crowd at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, they were able to snap their season-high four-game losing streak, beating Southern California 85-70.

Washington, needing a big game from its backcourt, received just that en route to the win. After being under heavy scrutiny for much of the season, sophomore Justin Dentmon came out and played a great game, scoring 12 points and adding two assists. But most importantly, he committed no turnovers.

"They gambled early and left him open," said coach Lorenzo Romar. "That was huge for his confidence. Tonight was a great, great start in the right direction for him."

Also adding 22 points to the team total was Ryan Appleby, who hit five of seven from beyond the 3-point line, and was six of 10 overall.

As a team, the Huskies were hot from beyond the arc in the first half, going nine-of-13 (69.2 percent), helping catapult them to an 11-point lead at the break. The open looks were a result of USC's plan to disrupt the games of freshman Spencer Hawes and sophomore Jon Brockman.

"They were so worried about Spencer and Jon down low so that gave us some open looks," Appleby said. "The ball just fell my way tonight, and we got a good win."

Aside from the scoring, Washington was able to play efficient basketball, committing only 10 turnovers.

"It's key for us," said Brockman, who was second on the team with 17 points and added nine rebounds. "We've been turning the ball over a lot. We need to take precious care of that ball."

According to Romar, not turning the ball over was what allowed his team to withstand the Trojans' best shot coming down the stretch in the second half.

After trailing by as many as 17 in the half, USC was able to whittle the lead down to five, behind the efforts of Nick Young. The junior scored half of his game-high 26 points in the second period, and was the most effective at cutting into the Huskies' lead.

"We fought pretty hard there for about 15 minutes in the second half," said Trojan coach Tim Floyd. "We even closed the gap, and it could have been even tighter than that. But we missed some free throws prior to that, and we subbed, and when we did that, it was not quite the same as our starters. We shot ourselves in the foot with those turnovers."

Committing some turnovers in crucial moments as well as receiving just four points combined from team leaders Gabe Pruitt and Lodrick Stewart was ultimately the undoing of the Trojans.

Up next for the Huskies will be the season finale against UCLA. The Bruins wrapped up the regular season title with a win over Washington State, but Romar still wants his guys to be ready.

"If they rest their guys, bring in Shaq, whatever, we have to worry about our game," he said.

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