The Huskies had to avenge their overtime loss to Oregon State Thursday night to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive. And they did just that. Washington took care of business, beating the Beavers, 79-77.
Washington came out of the gate on fire, making 13 of their first 20 shots and 7-12 from 3-point range. The hot shooting gave the Huskies an 11-point lead in the first half before heading to halftime with a 42-37 lead.
But the game wouldn’t end without a little drama. After dominating much of the game, UW fell behind in the second half. After two Tres Tinkle free throws, Oregon State took a 59-57 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining.
In a game that didn’t feature much defense on both ends, it was the Huskies that fixed things down the stretch. In the final 10 minutes of play Oregon State scored just 18 points.
“We made adjustments,” Noah Dickerson said about UW’s good defense down the stretch.”Just in the huddle, we made some great adjustments. And you know we needed a stop and we made stops.”
The Huskies were led by Noah Dickerson’s 25 points. Oregon State had no answer for the junior – who made 10-13 shots from the field.
Matisse Thybulle, David Crisp, and Jaylen Nowell each finished with 12 points.
Washington improved to 20-10 on the season and 10-7 in conference play. Oregon State falls to 14-15 and 6-11 in conference play.
This is the first time since 2011-12 that the Huskies have won at least 20 games.
“Not all, not all,” Noah Dickerson said with a laugh about if he thought the Huskies would win 20 games this season.”No especially just the statistics for new coaches and things like that. Nobody was thinking like that. We came out and gave coach Hop a try and all the new coaches and they knew what they were talking about a little bit. As the year went on we got better at it and better at it and better at it and so this is the position we’re in now.”
The Huskies are back in action on Saturday when they host Oregon at 1:30 p.m.
