The Huskies (14-4, 5-0) earned their 1000th all-time win at Hec-Ed Pavilion with a 71-52 win over Cal (5-13, 0-6). It was the Huskies seventh win a row and for the first time season the 1983-1984 season they have started a season 5-0.
The Huskies used a dominant second half to earn a comfortable win over the Bears but the first-half was anything but. The Golden Bears jumped on Washington starting the game with a 9-2 run. It was clear Wyking Jones team was committed to collapsing on Noah Dickerson and forcing the Huskies to shoot from outside.
That would work in Cal’s favor as the Huskies only made 1 of their first 11 3-point attempts. 12 minutes into the game they had just 10 points. Exasperating matters, the Huskies turned the ball over 9 times in the first half.
The Huskies were also missing a lot of open looks and those started to fall. Down 10, David Crisp and Dominic Green hit back to back 3’s to cut Cal’s lead to 23-19 and they would take the lead on Green’s trey with 1:54 to go. The Huskies carried just a 29-28 lead into the half.
Washington did a good job in the second half getting to the line and the 3-point shots continued to fall. A Crisp 3-pointer with 13:22 to go, pushed the lead to double digits at 47-35 and Cal never really threatened after that.
Keys to the Game
Dickerson’s domination
After playing under 25 minutes the first four Pac-12 games and causing this writer to question whether the team plays better without him Dickerson showed just how valuable he is inside. He finished a game-high 11 rebounds and 2 steals. Dickerson only took three field goals but scored 12 points by getting to the line. He drew foul after foul battling for position and hustling for rebounds. Dickerson got to the line 15 times, converting 10.
Washington’s Bench does it again
While Naz Carter has often been the catalyst for Washington off the bench, Dominic Green was the man on Saturday. He scored a game-high 17 points and hit 4 3-pointers. Carter looked out of sorts getting into foul trouble, turning the ball over 3 times and picking up a silly technical but the senior was able to again be the calming influence off the bench.
California is not a good basketball team
Give the Golden Bears some credit. They got off to an early lead and didn’t seem phased by this first vs. worst matchup but Cal allowed Washington to stay in the game during their dreadful start. Freshman Matt Bradley came into the game averaging 10.9 points a game but was held scoreless on 0-10 shooting from the field. Cal’s leading scorer Justice Sueing who came in averaging 14.4 points and 6.2 rebounds was a dreadful 2-11 from the field including 0-5 from beyond the arc. The Bears got outrebounded by the Huskies 40-32 (doesn’t happen often) and even though the Huskies turned the ball over 18 times, cal could only turn that into 16 points. For the game Cal shot just 30.5% from the field and was 1 of 15 from 3.
Player Ratings
Dickerson – 8.5 – As mentioned above, Dickerson was a menace and was aggressive getting to the free throw line. He was dominant on the boards and and had 2 steals. He had an impressive play in the second half where he grabbed an offensive rebound and dished to a streaking Matisse Thybulle for a two-hand flush. He never looked comfortable posting up and had some trouble passing out of double teams (3 turnovers) but the team was +20 when he was on the court.
Wright – 7 – Wright only played 8 minutes but showed well blocking 3 shots and scoring a layup on a drive to the hoop.
Crisp – 7 – Crisp was a little sloppy with the ball (3 turnovers, 0 assist) but he was Washington’s most efficient 3-point shooter (3 of 5), 12 points.
Thybulle – 8 – Thybulle played his usual menacing defensive role blocking 5 shots and collecting two steals but the offense was good too. He had 13 points and 5 assist in 33 minutes. Bonus for staying out of the foul trouble that has plagued him at times.
Nowell – 6 – Nowell looked out of sorts at times, he turned the ball over 4 times and made some extremely poor passing decisions. To his credit he contributed on the glass with 9 rebounds and he had 4 assist. Due to foul trouble he played just 30 minutes with him picking up his 4th with about 10 minutes to go.
Bey – 7.5 – The freshman guard played 9 minutes and was really active defensively. He had 3 steals and a block, but his most impressive play was setting up Crisp 3-pointer in the second half to push Washington’s lead to double digit.
Carter – 5 – Carter had a bit of a rough go with just 4 points in 20 minutes. The technical was for him retaliating after being tripped.
Green – 9 – Cal played a lot of zone and early it frustrated the Huskies. Green not only hit a bunch of shots but he did a nice job finding spots in the zone.
Hardy, Q. Bernard, S. Timmins, J. Crandall, T. Rice and R. Lundeen – NR – Timmins played sparingly with Dickerson being more effective. The others came in when Mike Hopkins emptied the bench.
Outlook: Every other team in the Pac-12 has at least two losses except Arizona and Oregon State and one of them will by the end of the day (their game is in progress at press-time). The Huskies will get a tough challenge next week as they travel to the Oregon schools, a split would suffice but the Huskies are confident and might be thinking sweep.
