For the first time in five years, the Washington Huskies basketball team has defeated a ranked opponent.
Down goes Gonzaga.
The 7th-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs rolled into town, and the Huskies showed who the top dog was and that they have a ton of fight left in them.
After the huge win, Keion Brooks, Jr. said that “it felt like we played for the brand of what Washington basketball is. A big reason why some of us came back this year was to bring Washington basketball back to being a winning program that’s competing for championships.”
So are the Huskies competing for championships? In the year when Mike Hopkins’ job security is under public speculation, the Huskies have looked like a tournament team. Sitting at 7-3 the Huskies have already faced three ranked teams. The three losses are all close, a tough-to-swallow loss against Nevada; a one-possession game in overtime versus 25th-ranked San Diego State; and a back-and-forth battle with No. 13 Colorado State.
Of their seven wins, the Huskies have now beaten a very good Xavier team on a neutral site, and now they’ve stunned national powerhouse Gonzaga in Seattle.
In Saturday night’s heavyweight fight, the Huskies spread out the scoring with five players in double digits. Brooks, Jr. was the main man with 17. He has taken on a big role for the Huskies’ offense as he consistently leads the scoring effort.
Outside of Brooks, Jr., the big story for the Huskies was center Frank Kepnang who had 4 blocks in the second half of action. The 6-11 center contributed 14 points and 7 rebounds with the 5 blocks to have one of the biggest days for UW. His impact isn’t entirely limited to the stat sheet. Kepnang was a force defensively on the interior, as the Bulldogs shot just 39-percent on 2-point shots.
UW excelled in doing the difficult things all night. Defensively they held Gonzaga to an abysmal shooting night. They went 0-for from three in the second half and shot 27.8-percent as a total on the night.
The Huskies cleaned Gonzaga off the glass as they won the rebound battle 36-28. After the loss against Colorado St., the Huskies looked at themselves in the mirror and vowed to be better from the free throw line, and they were excellent, going 84-percent on the game. In fact, 8 of their last 12 points came from the charity stripe.
If the Huskies can keep up playing complete basketball games like they did last night this is a tournament team. There is no doubt about that right now. This team has all the tools, and if they can continue to execute on this level the Washington Huskies will be playing meaningful basketball in March.
