It had been over a week since the Huskies last played a game and they looked very hungry in their 80-62 win over the Washington State Cougars.
Washington played a complete game on both ends of the floor.
“I thought they had their best game of the year,” Coach Hopkins said about UW’s performance.
The Huskies assisted on 20 out of their 30 made field goals and shot 53.6 percent from the field. On the defensive end, Washington held WSU to 62 points and 42.1% shooting from the field.
Matisse Thybulle was all over the place in his 18-point performance. Thybulle wreaked havoc in UW’s 2-3 zone, finishing with four steals and one block. The junior also added six assists to his impressive performance.
After trailing 28-27 with just over five minutes remaining in the first half, the Huskies would go on a run that would change the course of the game. Sparked by three Dominic Green 3-pointers, the Huskies quickly went on an 18-0 run that concluded with a fast break dunk by Matisse Thybulle that brought the sold out crowd to their feet. Washington took a 45-30 lead to the half.
The Huskies got off to a slow start in the second half after WSU went on an 8-0 right out of the intermission. Washington State would quickly trim UW’s 15-point lead to just five points. But Matisse Thybulle 4-point play after being fouled on a made 3-pointer sparked a 12-0 UW run. During the Huskies’ run, WSU would be held scoreless for over six minutes as UW took a 61-44 lead with just over 10 minutes to go.
“Just no threes and force them to take those inside floaters because we knew that’s not how they wanted to play,” Matisse Thybulle said on what the game plan was defensively against the Cougars.”So we took them out of their game.”
Coming into the game the talk was about Washington State’s conference leading 3-point percentage against UW’s conference leading 3-point defensive percentage. The Huskies won that battle. Washington State made just 6-24 three-point attempts. On the other hand, UW not known as a good 3-point shooting team, made 11-25 from distance.
Jaylen Nowell finished with 14 points and nine rebounds.
Noah Dickerson added 13 points and six rebounds.
Nahziah Carter scored 11 points.
The Huskies improved to 15-6 on the season and 5-3 in conference play. Washington State falls to 9-11 on the season and 1-7 in conference play.
Washington is back in action on Thursday when they host Arizona State.
