Noah Dickerson scored 7 of his 22 points in overtime to help Washington hold on for a 81-76 win over Oregon State . The Huskies are now one win away from their undefeated season at home in 14 years.
The Huskies (24-6, 15-2) got a reminder that nothing comes easy this time of year. Just three days after they had to sweat out a one-point victory over Stanford, Oregon State (17-12, 9-8) pushed Washington to their first overtime game of the season.
Both teams had a chance to win in regulation. Noah Dickerson broke a 64 all tie with a reverse layin with 1:08 to go but on the ensuing possession he mistimed an attempt to draw a charge on Tres Tinkle’s drive to the hoop. Tinkle’s lay-in tied the game at 66 and he had an opportunity to give the Beavers their first lead of the 2nd half following the foul but missed at the line.
Washington had a chance to go ahead themselves but Nowell was stripped by Stephen Thompson Jr. on a drive to his left with 33 seconds to go. Ethan Thompson dove for the loose ball but before he could call timeout he was tied up by an alert Nowell with the possession arrow allowing Washington to maintain possession.
Washington was given the ball back with 12 to shoot and again went to Nowell. He drove to the his right this time and forced a pass to a well defended Matisse Thybulle on the wing. With just four seconds to shoot Thybulle threw up a contested shot that missed everything for a shot clock violation with 21 seconds remaining.
Thompson Jr. got the ball with a chance to hit his 3rd game winning shot in four years over the Huskies but Crisp defended him well and his low-percentage 3-pointer bounced harmlessly off the iron sending the game to overtime.
There in overtime Dickerson went to work scoring the Huskies first three field goals. His third made it 74-69 giving Washington some cushion with 1:45 to go.
Tinkle responded with a 3 with 1:17 to go that cut the Huskies lead to 2. Washington went back to Nowell and this time he made the right decision finding an open Crisp on the wing for a 3-pointer that pushed the lead back to 5 with 48 seconds to go.
The Huskies made enough free-throws at the end to push their record at home to 15-0.
Washington led just 33-32 at half-time and never led by more than six in the second-half.
Keys to the Game
The Beavers had no answer for Dickerson
Dickerson had arguably his best game of the season going 8 of 13 from the field and grabbing 17 rebounds, 5 of them offensive. The other Huskies had only 11 rebounds.
On one first-half trip down the court Dickerson grabbed a miss by Nowell, another miss by Wright and then said, “I’ll do it myself” with a nifty putback for two of his 22 points. Dickerson also had two blocks and two steals. The only knock is he had 5 of Washington’s 12 turnovers.
Washington’s free throw shooting kept the door open for OSU
The Huskies were just 17 of 26 from the free throw line (65.4%). No miss loomed larger than when Jaylen Nowell missed two in a row with just under 4 minutes to go. At that point the Huskies were up four and could have gone up by six. Instead the Beavers made two free throws at the other end to stay within two.
Washington put the clamps on Thompson Jr.
He came into the game averaging 19.9 ppg in five career games against the Huskies and when he got the ball with time running out I had a feeling he was going to break Husky hearts again but like many of his shots his attempt bounced harmlessly away from the rim. Thompson Jr. had just 9 points (1 of 6 from beyond the arc) and he turned the ball over three times. Tinkle on the other hand was too much for the Huskies to handle, he made one last ditch effort in the race for Pac-12 Player of the Year scoring 31 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
Outlook: The Beavers are a good squad and not a team I think the Huskies want to see a third time in the Pac-12 tournament if it were up to them. That said, it didn’t take long for the Huskies to crack the Beavers zone as they shot over 50% from the field for the first time in seven games. They were equally deadly beyond the arc where they were 10 of 21. What’s a bit concerning is the Huskies inability to put the Beavers away and they won’t have to look much further than their poor effort at the free throw line.
Mike Hopkins will be encouraged his team doesn’t bat an eye in close games, it’s a big advantage of having four seniors in your crunch-time lineup (Crisp, Thybulle, Green, Dickerson and the sophomore Nowell). On to the player grades….
Wright – 7 – After logging a season-high 30 minutes against Stanford, Wright earned 26 on Wednesday night. He provided the rim protection the Huskies need blocking four shots and also came away with a steal. He was 0-2 from the field but we may just have to accept his offensive game is at least a year away.
Dickerson – 10 – Just a masterful performance. Even though he was at times facing the top shot blocker in the nation (Kelley), Dickerson knew how to use his body to attack the lanky 7 footer and create space for his shots. Dickerson’s plus/minus of +14 in a five point win shows how much better the Huskies were when Oregon State had to account for him.
Thybulle – 8 – Thybulle looked like his old self defensively in the arena where he is averaging 5 steals per game in Pac-12 play. He finished with four steals and 2 blocks in addition to his 9 points. His best play of the night came with OSU trailing 78-74. It looked like Thompson Jr. had dribbled past him with a clear path to the hoop but Thybulle used his 7 foot wingspan to tie him up from behind earning earn a jump ball that transferred possession to the Huskies.
Nowell – 8 – Nowell was unselfish to a fault at times but still scored 18 points and had 5 assist against just one turnover. The “closer” had a turnover and made a poor pass with two shots to win the game in the final minute but he played well in overtime and made some free throws to ice the game.
Crisp – 9 – Crisp was unbelievable in the first-half scoring 11 of Washington’s first 22 points and making his first three 3-pointer attempts. He finished with 22 points going 7 of 9 from the field (several tough layups), 4 of 6 from beyond the arc (several heat check shots) and 4 of 5 from the line (including one to ice the game). Short of three turnovers, he had a “10” performance.
Carter – 7 – Carter brought a lot of energy in the first half scoring 5 points in 11 minutes. He was just 1 of 3 with a turnover in the second-half.
Green – 6 – Green went 1 of 3 from beyond the arc and played good defense in 18 minutes picking up a steal. His +6 plus/minus was the best of the reserves.
Timmins – 7 – Timmins didn’t get a lot of opportunities with Wright and Dickerson playing so well but he made his 11 minutes count grabbing 3 rebounds to go with 2 steals.
