A night when No. 1 Kentucky went down at home to Evansville, it looked like for a moment the Washington Huskies might be in trouble as well. The Huskies entered the night a 22-point favorite against Mount St. Mary’s. The game played out to be anything but an easy win for the Huskies as they scraped by with a 56-46 win.
“I just want you to compete,” Coach Mike Hopkins told his team at halftime after they struggled and were tied with Mount St Mary’s heading to the locker room. Hopkins said that he didn’t think his team played hard enough in the first half.
The Huskies did respond in the second half as they outscored MSM, 35-25. But it wasn’t very pretty.
“It was just one of those games,” Hopkins told reporters after the game.
Washington struggled all night to get anything going on the offensive end. One play that helped the Huskies avoid an upset was ironically on the offensive end however. With just under 10 minutes remaining in the game, the Huskies led by just four, and then Nahziah Carter took flight. Carter received a pass from point guard Quade Green on a fast break and nearly leaping over a defender. The junior finished with an epic dunk that left Alaska Airlines Arena in a frenzy.
“Man that’s all I ever try to do,” Nahziah Carter said with a laugh after being asked if he was trying to supply a spark with his highlight dunk.
Outside of the Carter dunk there wasn’t much to cheer about for the Huskies offensively speaking. The Huskies shot just 22-53 from the field and had 15 turnovers. Isaiah Stewart finished 7-10 shooting from the field with 16 points. But the rest of the team shot just 15-43 from the field.
Washington did make up for their lack of offense on the other side of the court. The Huskies had 11 blocked shots, seven steals, whiling holding MSM to just 46 points.
Nahziah Carter was the only Husky outside of Stewart to score in double-figures. Carter finished with 14 points.
Player of the Game
This was a pretty easy one, freshman Isaiah Stewart was everywhere. The 6-foot-9 freshman finished the night with 16 points, five rebounds, and five blocks. Stewart absolutely dominated on both ends of the floor.
Takeaway
Washington is going to have games like this. They are young and it’s not always going to be pretty. But they did get the job done. Offensively, the Huskies must move the ball more and be less stagnant. Defensively this team can be scary good. The offense will come but it might take awhile. So the main takeaway is that the Huskies will have more games like this especially in November with such a young team.
Looking ahead
The Huskies will next play Tennessee this Saturday. The game is a neutral site contest at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada. You can watch the game on ESPN+ at 2 p.m.
