After a sluggish Pac-12 opening loss to UCLA, the Huskies bounced back with an impressive 72-40 win over the USC Trojans. Washington improved to 11-4 on the season. USC falls to 12-3.
The Huskies played inspired basketball from the opening tip. Washington has been a slow starter for much of the season and after their loss to UCLA last Thursday night, coach Mike Hopkins said it was on him to fix it. And fix it, they did. Washington led 10-1 at the first media timeout. And after a sluggish next eight minutes on offense, UW finished the half strong thanks to three big dunks from Nate Roberts who’s minutes increased due to Isaiah Stewart being in foul trouble. Washington led 35-21 at halftime.
A big story of the first half was UW’s defense coming to play. Jaden McDaniels despite shooting 1-for-7 from the field had seven blocks. The Trojans shot just 7-of-33 from the field and 0-for-7 from the 3-point line.
USC continued to fail at cracking UW’s two-three zone defense in the second half. Washington quickly extended their lead by 17 points and never looked back.
Washington was impressive all night on the defensive end. UW held USC to 13-for-65 shooting from the field and just 2-of-15 from 3-point range. The Huskies also forced 21 Trojan turnovers.
Isaiah Stewart led the Huskies with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Quade Green finished with 14 points, five assists and four steals.
Despite a poor shooting night, Jaden McDaniels scored 11 points, added seven rebounds, and six blocks.
Looking ahead
Washington will have their first Pac-12 road trip next week. The Huskies face Stanford on Thursday and California on Saturday.
