After coming up short against The Washington Huskies men’s basketball finally broke through against the 7th-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs Saturday night. The hard-fought, much-needed 78-73 win was weeks in the making.
After coming up short against Nevada 83-76 where the Huskies went cold . A week later the Huskies went toe-to-toe against 2022 Final Four San Diego State, losing in overtime 100-97. After the game Washington coach Mike Hopkins called it a “heavyweight fight”.
Against the number 7 Bulldogs the Washington were able to punch up a few weight classes, with center Franck Kepnang landing several key blows. He gave the College Basketball world a look at what it missed with him sidelined last year.
His 5 blocks were a career high, but as he reinstated his dominance in the paint. Kepnang repeatedly turned away Gonzaga in the final 16 minutes of the game as UW came from 11 points down. The Zags shot 8-percent, 1-12 down the stretch.
Despite going 0-6 from the field in the second half, Kepnang changed how Gonzaga’s offense functioned. He had 4 of his 5 blocks in the final in the final 16:43 of the game, but his physical presence in the middle kept the Zags out of the paint.
Forced to shoot from outside in the second half, the Zags went ice cold, going 0-9 from 3-point land. They cooled off considerably from inside the arc shooting 39-percent on 7-18 shooting. 11 of Gonzaga’s 25 second half points came from the free throw line.
In fact, Washington’s offense fed Gonzaga the ball 10 times which should have turned the game into a blowout, but the Zags couldn’t make anything happen inside. To that point, the first half the Zags had 24 points in the paint, but just 8 in the second half. That’s the unpublished stat that illustrates the impact of Franck’s shot-blocking ability. He erased 8 points with his blocks in the second half but he also forced Gonzaga to shoot lower-percentage shots.
Kepnang’s stat line looks like this:
14 points
7 rebounds
5 blocks
1 steal
1 assist
3 personal fouls
4-5 free throws
Gg
