In what was like a heavyweight title fight, Washington and No. 25 Arizona State battled to the final buzzer Thursday night at Alaska Airlines Arena. The Huskies once again came up big in the clutch making their final five field goal attempts and six free throws in the final 4:53 of play to beat Arizona State, 68-64.
“We come into a situation like that, we train for that all off season, all preseason, that’s what we train to do. We train to close out games,” junior forward Noah Dickerson said about the close finish.
After quickly giving up a 10-point halftime lead, the Huskies faced adversity once again. But again they prevailed in the end. After a Shannon Evans made jump shot, Arizona State tied the game 58-58, with 3:37 remaining. On the next possession, Noah Dickerson would make two free throws to give UW a 60-58 lead with 3:02 to play.
Washington and Arizona State would trade baskets over the next couple of minutes before a questionable charge call on Jaylen Nowell gave the ball back to the Sun Devils down 66-64 with 37 second left. But the Huskies defense that allowed just 64 points, a season low for ASU, came up with the biggest play of the night. Sam Timmins stole the ball from Mickey Mitchell and got the ball to Dominic Green who was fouled with 10.6 seconds remaining. Facing a 1-and-1, Green made both free throws to seal the win for the Huskies.
The Huskies are 12-3 this season in games decided by 10 points or less.
In a game in which the Huskies shot just 39.3 percent from the field, UW’s defense carried the load. The Sun Devils managed just 64 points and shot 5-19 from 3-point range. The Huskies had 10 steals on the night.
Fighting the stomach bug, Matisse Thybulle battled and had nine points, six steals, and two blocks on the night. Thybulle now holds the UW single season record with 70 steals with nine regular season games remaining.
“He’s No. 1,” Coach Hopkins said about where Matisse Thybulle’s defensive instincts rank among guards he’s coached in his career. “He impacts the game at the guard spot as well as I’ve ever seen.”
On his 21st birthday, junior forward Noah Dickerson finished with 21 points and 16 rebounds. Dickerson scored six points in the final 4:21 of play.
“We think Noah’s one of the best big guys not only in our league but in the country,” Coach Hopkins said about Dickerson. “When we go to him you get teams in foul trouble. And he can really score. And he’s a problem in there.”
David Crisp also made some huge plays down the stretch for the Huskies. After struggling in the first half, Crisp scored 10 points in the second half and had zero turnovers for the game.
True freshman Jaylen Nowell finished with 15 points and nine rebounds.
Washington improves to 16-6 and 6-3 in conference play. Arizona State falls to 16-6 and 4-6 in conference play.
The Huskies return to action on Saturday, when they host No. 9 Arizona at 7:30 p.m. Less than 200 tickets remain for the big game.
