The preseason No. 25 ranked Washington Huskies picked by the media to finish third in the Pac-12, struggled in an exhibition win Thursday night against Seattle Pacific.
Less than two weeks ago, UW went on the road against a preseason top-10 ranked Nevada team and beat them, 91-73. So little did anyone think that the Huskies would find themselves in a dog fight at home against SPU. But that’s exactly what happened. With less than 10 minutes to play, UW trailed 47-46.
The Huskies would go on to win, 70-61. But it wasn’t pretty.
The Bad
* Offensively, the Huskies played too much one-on-one basketball and took a lot of careless shots. Washington finished the night shooting just 39.6 percent from the field. UW also went on a scoring drought that lasted nearly seven minutes in the first half.
* Washington was careless with the basketball tonight. There were way too many passes that landed out of bounds or to the other team. UW turned the ball over a 19 times leading to 21 of SPU’s 61 points.
*UW did not rebound as they should have against a team of this caliber. The Huskies gave up 12 offensive rebounds and only out-rebounded SPU, 43-41.
*Due to poor play, freshmen Bryan Penn-Johnson, Elijah Hardy, Jamal Bay, and Nate Roberts played only a combined 16 minutes. Exhibition games are good to get your younger players more playing time but it was not to be tonight.
The Good
* Jaylen Nowell led the Huskies with 23 points. Nowell logged 37 minutes and shot 8-17 from the field.
* David Crisp had 20 points on just 10 shots. The senior was 6-10 from the field and 7-9 from the foul line.
*Washington did start the game on an 11-0 run. It was short lived but a fast starting team is never a bad thing.
* The player of the game goes to Matisse Thybulle. Despite scoring just seven points, the senior added eight steals, seven rebounds, and three blocks. If Thybulle’s offense ever catches up to his defense watch out.
* Washington’s zone combined with their press forced 19 SPU turnovers. Mike Hopkins’ zone looked very good.
Looking ahead
It’s crazy to think but the Huskies open up their 2018-19 season next Tuesday at home against Western Kentucky. It should be a good test against a Western Kentucky team picked by the media to win the Conference USA. Washington also travels to No. 11 Auburn November 11 in a key non-conference contest.
Coach Hopkins’ post-game presser
