Quincy Pondexter's 34 points led the Washington Huskies to an 86-72 win over the Oregon Ducks Thursday evening at McArthur Court.

The Ducks were paced by guard Tajuan Porter's 18 points and center Michael Dunigan's 16 points but Oregon had no answer for the Husky forward who hit 14 of 18 from the floor, many of which were rim-rattling slam dunks.

The honorary captains - current Portland TrailBlazer Brandon Roy representing Washington and legendary coach Dick Harter of Kamikaze Kids fame - had barely settled into their seats after the pre-game accolades before the Huskies bolted to a quick six point lead.

Although Oregon would narrow the margin to one point following a Jeremy Jacobs tip-in, the Huskies extended their lead to seven points on two occasions before Porter's trey tied the game at 19.

For the last ten minutes of the opening half, the Ducks were able to maintain a narrow margin thanks to the inside play of Dunigan and the outside shooting of Porter.

But every time it seemed that Oregon was poised to expand their lead, the Huskies found Pondexter behind the defense for an easy slam or an open jumper and at the break, Washington was within a point of the Ducks, 40-39

Washington took control of the contest early in the second half, building a 10 point lead on a Pondexter jumper four minutes in.

Oregon hit for an even 50% in the first 20 minutes, but in the second stanza they were able to only manage to connect on 11-40 for a 27.5% shooting percentage.

As the Ducks misfired, the Huskies regularly beat Oregon down the floor in transition expanding their lead to 16 points after 12 minutes and coasted home from there.

"I've sat over on that sideline and said many times if we could shoot the ball we'd be dangerous," said head coach Ernie Kent. "I thought we had an opportunity in the ball game again to maybe put a team down 10 points early in the half with just making lay-ups and making basketball plays. We left way too many basketball plays out on the floor."

"To Washington's credit I thought Pondexter had just a wonderful game. There athleticism really turned the game into an up tempo game in the second half and they made a lot of plays."

"The last two or three possessions of the first half and I thought the first six or seven possessions of the second half we were just not very good and that's where they took control of the game."

"They got into a little bit of a faster pace. I thought in transition they really hurt us . But there were just a lot of plays that we didn't make."

With the loss Oregon's record falls to 14-15 on the season and their 6-11 Pac-10 record insures the Ducks will be forced into the conference tournament play-in game regardless of the outcome of Saturday's contest with Washington State. Tip is set for 5:00 pm for the final Pac-10 conference basketball game scheduled to be played in McArthur Court.