PORTLAND, Ore. - The general consensus held that Mississippi State was much better than the No. 13 seed it was assigned for the NCAA tournament.

The general consensus was wrong.

MSU played every bit like overmatched first-round fodder Thursday, enduring a 71-58 loss to No. 4 seed Washington in a West Region matchup at the Rose Garden.

The Huskies (26-8), ranked 15th in the country, will face No. 5 seed Purdue in Saturday's second round.

The momentum of a six-game winning streak, which included an SEC Tournament title, did not go west with MSU (23-13). That four-day run in Tampa, plus the nearly 2,000-mile trip to Portland, might have taken too much out of the Bulldogs.

They played five games in eight days.

MSU head coach Rick Stansbury dismissed those as reasons for his team's lack of energy, saying, "We just weren't as quick as we normally are, as energetic as we normally are."

Plus, there was too much Quincy Pondexter, a 6-foot-6 junior. The Huskies' fourth-leading scorer for the season, he notched a season-high 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting.

"He was just a huge matchup, very athletic, bigger and stronger than he looked," Stansbury said. "Everybody talks about (Jon) Brockman and Isaiah (Thomas), he's kind of the wild card on that team."

Thomas, a freshman point guard and the Huskies' top scorer this season, finished with nine points and five assists; Brockman, a senior center, added 10 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.

MSU's big man, Jarvis Varnado, was limited by foul trouble and finished with seven points, three rebounds and five blocks.

"I felt like if I would've stayed in there it would've been a lot different story," said Varnado, who had only two points in six minutes at halftime.

Having Varnado on the bench made it easier for Washington to defend MSU's four-guard lineup. The Bulldogs were held to 18 attempts from 3-point range, including eight in the first half, and hit five of them.

"Defensively today, I felt like it was maybe one of our better performances," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said, "in that there were potential mismatches around the floor, but it never got that way because it was as if everyone was tied to a rope together."

The game was tied 12-12 when Washington went on a 19-8 surge - Pondexter scored eight points during the stretch. The Huskies didn't let up and held a 38-27 halftime lead.

Varnado started the second half but missed his first three shots as Washington stretched its lead to 44-27, prompting Stansbury to call timeout. Varnado then picked up his third and fourth fouls and returned to the bench at the 14-minute, 18-second mark.

Washington's lead never dipped below a dozen.

Barry Stewart and Phil Turner scored 11 each to lead the Bulldogs. Kodi Augustus added nine points and eight rebounds off the bench.

"I think we had energy," said Stewart. "We just didn't get into our rhythm."