After winning a nail-biter on Thursday in Eugene, Washington left no doubt in Corvallis as they won their ninth game in a row by beating the Oregon State Beavers 79-69. The Huskies, now 7-0 in Pac-12 play, are off to their best conference start in 66 years and have won nine games in a row.
Jaylen Nowell scored 19 points and Naz Carter broke out of a slump with 18 as the Huskies continued their torrid shooting (58% from the field, 37% from 3-point). It was the Huskies first win in Corvallis in 5 years and their first sweep of the Oregon schools in 9 years.
The Huskies led the whole way taking their biggest lead of 21 in the second-half when Sam Timmins grabbed an offensive rebound and found a streaking Mattise Thybulle for a dunk. Thybulle was fouled on the play and added a free throw.
Oregon State hung around using a similiar full-court press to the one Oregon used to get back in the game on Thursday. Washington turned the ball over 8 times in the second-half but made enough free-throws down the stretch for a comfortable win.
Washington’s defense was again the catalyst to victory as they held an opponent under 71 points for the ninth consecutive game. They led 40-27 at the half after turning 11 Oregon State turnovers into 18 points. The Beavers turned the ball over on their first three possessions leading to two David Crisp layups and a transition 3 by Nowell.
Stephen Thompson Jr., who hit a buzzer-beater to beat the Huskies in Corvallis last year in a double over-time game, had 30 points on Saturday including 6 3-pointers but he didn’t get much help.
Tre Tinkle, the conference’s third leading scorer, had 18 points but struggled going just 4-12 from the field and 0-3 from beyond the arc. No other Beaver was in double figures.
Keys to the Game
Fast Start
The Huskies started the game on an 11-0 run before Thompson Jr. hit a 3-pointer to get the Beavers on the board. In Eugene on Thursday, Oregon scored the first bucket then the Huskies went on a 13-0 run to take another early 11 point lead. Winning on the road in the Pac-12 is tough, teams typically aim to win at least 5 Pac-12 road games a year but the Huskies already have 4 with 5 to go. Washington has been able to do it by jumping on the opposing team early and taking the opposing crowd out of the game. It’s a great formula that will hopefully serve the team well when they head to Tempe and Tucson next week.
The Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year will be…
The game featured two of the conferences premier defenders in Thybulle and Oregon State’s Trey Kelly who leads all of NCAA Division-1 players in blocked shots with 3.9 per game. While Thybulle, the reigning player of the year did his usual work with 5 steals, Kelly was in constant foul trouble and only played 19 minutes. Kelly did not block a single shot for the first-time this season, this just two-weeks after he blocked 7 in an overtime win over USC. The Huskies did an excellent job going at Kelly, best exemplified when Naz Carter took a pass from Nowell at the top of the key, drove to his right where Kelly was trying to get around Noah Dickerson and elevated on Kelly who got a late jump. Carter dunked on the 7 footer despite a foul and stared at him on the ground before converting the free-throw. Yes, the dunk gave the Huskies an early 17-7 lead but more importantly it set the tone that the Huskies weren’t going to be intimidated. Carter would dunk on would-be shot blockers two more times before the day was over.
Washington is deeper than everyone else
Washington is simply deeper than a lot of other Pac-12 teams. Against Cal it was Dominic Green to the rescue with 17 points off the bench. Sam Timmins added 7 in the Oregon game when Green and Carter combined for just 3 and. Saturday it was Carter with his 18. Even though Washington has been impressive jumping on teams from the start, once Nowell, Thybulle and Crisp rotate out of the game it’s huge having someone to keep the offensive rolling. The second game of a Pac-12 road trip can be tough on the legs but the Huskies were able to rotate bodies all game with little drop-off.
On to the player grades…
Dickerson – 8 – Dickerson only played 18 minutes as Washington went small much of the 2nd half but he also had the best plus/minus (+17) of any Husky. It’s clear that when Dickerson is on the court, the Huskies shooters are going to get better looks. He finished with 7 points and 6 rebounds.
Wright – 6.5 – After consecutive games without a rebound, Wright was much better against the Beavers grabbing 3. He also hit a 3-pointer and blocked a shot in 20 minutes.
Thybulle – 8 – Thybulle has been hit/miss offensively but had 11 points on Saturday. He turned the ball over 3 times but with the 5 steals he passed Eddie House for 3rd all-time in Pac-12 history behind Stanford’s Brevin Knight and OSU’s Gary Payton.
Crisp – 9 – Crisp played 37 of 40 minutes and managed the game as a true point guard with 4 assist and just 1 turnover. He had 14 points including the first two of the game on back to back fast break layups.
Nowell – 7 – While Nowell carried the Huskies against Oregon, he seemed to struggle with OSU’s press turning the ball over 4 times, many of them on his own half of the court. He also was in foul-trouble having to exit in the second half. To his credit he scored 19 points on only 6 shots which is the definition of efficient and he was 3 of 4 from beyond the arc.
Bey – NR – Bey played just 4 minutes in the first-half.
Carter – 10 – After scoring just 7 points the last two games, Carter scored 7 his first 3 minutes on the floor on Saturday. He was 8 of 11 from the field and filled the stat sheet with 3 assist, 3 rebounds and 3 steals without a turnover.
Green – 6 – After being held scoreless against the Ducks, Green looked for his shot a little more against the Beavers and finished with 5 points in 16 minutes.
Timmons – 7 – Timmins played a solid game grabbing 6 rebounds and blocking 3 shots in 19 minutes.
Outlook: The Huskies have a great chance to pull further away from the rest of the conference when they host the LA schools this coming week. Washington has not lost a home game yet this season.
