. – Lorenzo Romar was proud: “I thought we played the right way.”
Markelle Fultz was encouraged: “That was a big step for us.”
And yet Washington was still defeated, despite a surprising halftime lead, a competitive second half and a general feeling that this, all things considered, was their most impressive performance of the conference season.
No, the Huskies are not yet good enough to beat teams like No. 7 Arizona, which overcame a nine-point first-half deficit Sunday afternoon to win, 77-66, before an at-times exasperated crowd of 14,644 at the always-rowdy McKale Center. But this matchup had the makings of a massacre, and UW can consider it progress that it didn’t succumb to such a fate.