The Huskies found themselves in an all too familiar position at Alaska Airlines Arena Sunday night. Facing a pesky UC Davis team, UW led 67-65 with 1:29 remaining, head coach Mike Hopkins called timeout. And like so many times in this young season they turned to true freshman Jaylen Nowell. The 6-foot-4 guard came through again making a 15-foot fade away jump shot to give UW a 69-65 lead with 1:19 remaining in the game. The Aggies would make 1-out-of-2 free throws on the other end and cut the lead to 69-66 with 55.2 seconds remaining. Once again UW turned to Jaylen Nowell, who dribbled the clock down and settled for a floater in the lane that found the bottom of the net, with 29.2 seconds remaining – icing the game for the Huskies.
“He’s officially Randy Johnson,” Coach Mike Hopkins said when asked if Jaylen Nowell is becoming the team’s closer. “He just makes plays and he wants the ball.”
Jaylen Nowell has been no stranger to taking and making the big shots this season. Nowell sparked a comeback win vs Belmont in UW’s first game of the season, scoring 25 of his 32 points in the second half – making big shot after big shot. In UW’s win over Seattle University, last Friday, Nowell scored nine of his 25 points in the final 3:11, leading UW to an 89-84 victory.
The Huskies were able to overcome a bad first half in front of the 5,328 in attendance. Washington’s 10 first half turnovers led to a 37-34 deficit. But the Huskies came out hot in the second half, opening with a 14-2 run. But UC Davis wouldn’t go away. The Aggies would fight back and take a 59-58 lead with 6:55 remaining. But Washington would answer with a 6-0 run and never look back. The Huskies went on to beat the Aggies, 77-70. Washington improved to 4-2 on the season, while UC Davis dropped to 3-2.
Jaylen Nowell finished with a team high 21 points – shooting 7-of-12 from the field. Noah Dickerson fought foul trouble but still finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
UC Davis was led by Chima Moneke, who scored 23 points and added seven rebounds.
All four of Washington’s wins this season have been by 10 points or less, something Coach Hopkins isn’t too thrilled about.
“I don’t like it,” Hopkins said with a laugh talking about UW’s close games.”No, they are, these guys, they’re fighting. You look at the Providence game, we’re down, we went on a 12-1 run late. We’ve been able to close out games and come from behind. But we’re trying to work on getting to the point where we’re not in that position. We’ve been in a couple of positions where we’ve had seven point leads, nine point leads, 10 point leads, and we got to get to a point where we can make those 15-16-17-point leads.”
Washington next hosts Kennesaw State on Tuesday, November 28 at 6 p.m.
