SAN JOSE, Calif. — Of all the adjectives used to describe The University of New Mexico's improbable season, the Washington Huskies saw to it that "sweet" wouldn't be one of them.

The No. 11 seed in the East Region ran past the No. 3 Lobos in HP Pavilion with a dominating 82-64 victory that extends the NCAA Tournament misery of a New Mexico program still in search of its first string of consecutive victories in the tournament, and first trip to the round of 16 since the event expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

"I really thought this would be the year, this would be the team to do it and get to the Sweet 16," UNM forward Roman Martinez said. "They were just too much for us."

His head coach agreed with the analysis of his lone senior.

"We've played 35 games this year, and I think our team would agree that's the best team that's played against us on any given night," UNM head coach Steve Alford said. "We didn't do some things well tonight, but I thought Washington was terrific."

The Huskies, who Alford said are capable of playing in the Final Four, will first advance to the East Region semifinals next week in Syracuse, N.Y., where they will play the winner of today's West Virginia/Clemson game.

The Lobos (30-5), meanwhile, may still be trying to catch their breath for awhile after a game that exposed their lack of depth and tested their endurance.

"We did a great job of forcing the tempo," said UW senior forward Quincy Pondexter, who scored a team-high 18 points. "We knew they were a transition team going into this game, and we wanted to show that we have another level. ... You could see their heads go down a little bit, start to see them get tired and beat up."

With the exception of UNM point guard Dairese Gary, the Lobos weren't prepared for the track-meet-style the Huskies (26-9) threw at them.

"Their transition killed us pretty much," Gary said. "They got out fast and (made) layups after layups."

For his part, Gary consistently slashed through the lane, finding holes in the usually unforgiving UW defense and scored a game-high 25 points to go with four assists.

It was a performance Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar is happy to have behind him.

"Gary, wow, he's a bull with that basketball," Romar said. "We took our lumps by him scoring 25, but we picked our poison."

Asked what a performance like the one Gary had in the NCAA Tournament could do for the junior heading into next year, Alford continued to pile on praise.

"I think he goes into his senior year being the best guard in our league, if not one of the best in the country," Alford said.

While Gary's offense was present, Washington's defense saw to it that nobody else's was. UNM shot 39.4 percent from the field (26 of 66) and was just 5 of 17 (29.4 percent) from 3-point range.

A Huskies' hand was contesting every Lobo shot, leading to seven blocks and six steals.

Washington, winners of nine straight games, including last week's Pac-10 tournament championship, began running away from the Lobos midway through the first half.

A Nate Garth layup for UNM with 11 minutes, 52 seconds remaining in the first half tied the game at 19-all.

Washington rattled off a 12-2 scoring run and never trailed again. The Huskies used a combination of superior athleticism from its frontcourt — Pondexter and Matt Bryan-Amaning (15 points, nine rebounds, two blocks) — and a slew of lightning-quick guards to wear down UNM.

"They were athletic like San Diego State and like BYU," said Martinez of two Mountain West teams that gave UNM trouble this year.

While the Lobos twice beat BYU, a team fond of getting out in transition and running, they lost twice to San Diego State, a team with a big, athletic roster.

This season's SDSU struggles were something Romar admitted his staff spent a lot of time in the film room trying to figure out how to mimic.

In the end, it was more about what UNM didn't have — namely depth — than what matchup problems UW created.

"We knew they only had seven players," said UW sophomore guard Isaiah Thomas, who hit four 3-pointers and scored 15 points. "So we pushed the tempo so they would get tired."

Lobos junior Darington Hobson, who led the team in scoring, assists and rebounds this year, scored 11 points, had nine rebounds and turned the ball over four times while nursing an injured left wrist.

"I played, so there are no excuses," Hobson said. "It was good enough for me to play, and I just didn't play well. The wrist would just be making excuses."

Washington used a 9-0 second-half scoring run to push the lead to 57-36 and later led by as many as 23 points.

UNM, which used the same starting lineup for all 35 games, begrudgingly went to its bench late in the second half after rarely doing so all season.

When the final buzzer sounded, UNM had on the court sophomores Garth and Will Brown and three freshmen: Chad Adams, Curtis Dennis and Jamal Fenton.

Martinez, who scored 10 points in his final game for the Lobos, was badly cut over his left eye when he caught an elbow from Brown fighting for a rebound in the second half. Martinez received four stitches in the locker room and returned to the court wearing a different jersey since his was soaked in blood.

His fight, however, wasn't nearly enough on Saturday to carry the Lobos into the still-unchartered waters of the Sweet 16.

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3060 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at grammerschoolblog.com.