Kentucky transfer Keion Brooks scored 14 points in the final 13 minutes of Washington’s 81-78 overtime victory over the California Golden Bears Saturday night.
Cal hit serval clutch 3’s throughout the game and had a chance to tie it when Koren Johnson blocked Sam Alajiki’s 3-point attempt at the buzzer in overtime.
One of the best teams in the county in blocked shots, the Huskies added 7 more to their total as they completed the second half of the Bay Area sweep.
The California Golden Bears led the game for 34 minutes in regulation, building an 11-point lead midway through the 2nd half.
With the win Washington improved to 11-8 overall and 3-5 in the Pac-12 Conference.
The Huskies led 9-7 with 15:04 in the first half and didn’t reclaim the lead until 4:43 in overtime.
A runner from Keion Brooks gave the Huskies a 5-2 lead just 2:06 into the contest. A minute and ten seconds later Cal tied the game on a DeJuan Clayton 3.
With just under 4 minutes into the game German-born Lars Thiemann hits baby sky hook over Braxton Meah to give the Golden Bears a 7-5 lead.
Noah Williams’ layup and Keyon Menifield’s stepback 20-footer, gave UW a 9-7 lead with 15:04 in the first half.
Cal split a pair of free throws but quickly got ball back on a Joe Brown steal. With 14:07 left in the first half they took a 10-9 lead on a Kuany Kuany layup.
Over the next twelve minutes the teams traded buckets and miscues with the Golden Bears building a 6-point margin 25-19.
The Huskies knotted game at 25 with Noah Williams three with 4:23 left in the first half. Johnson banked-in his own 3 two minutes later.
The Bears’ Clayton converted a 4-point play with 2:19 building a seven point lead at intermission.
Call picked up where they left off in the first half dropping in a 3, taking a 36-26 lead never surrendered the lead until
Kuany, who entered the contest an 84-percent free throw shooter, had a chance to give the visitors a 4-point lead with 28.7 seconds left in the second half, missed the front end of a 1-and-1.
On the other end of the court Brooks cut to the left of the basket rose up and rattled in a layup with 12.2 seconds to tie the game.
Brooks had just 12 points with 8:25 left in regulation when he dropped in an jumper from the free throw line. The bucket brought the Huskies within 8.
The Huskies shot a scorching 61-percent in the 2nd half, backing that up by 80-percent in OT. Also, Washington went 9-12 from the line in the final frame.
The Golden Bears’ largest lead was 11 points at 54-43 with 10:12 left in regulation.
The Huskies stumbled their way through the first half shooting just 28-percent 5-18 from the field from inside the 3-point line. However, they shot 44-percent from beyond the arc.
Brooks had 7 of his game-high 26 points in the first half, but saved his best for overtime. He was perfect in the overtime period going 4-4 from the line. With 1:08 left he knocked down a clutch 8-foot jumper to give the Huskies a 73-70 lead. The Kentucky-transfer also has 3 of his 10 rebounds in the final five minutes of the game.
Koren Johnson also had 6 points in OT, hitting a 3-pointer, going 3-4 from the line.
With 4.5 seconds remaining in OT Brooks connected on both of his free throws, giving the Huskies an 81-78 lead Cal has a chance to tie it up but it was Johnson’s middle finger that that redirected Sam Alajiki’s 3-point attempt with .3 seconds in the game to seal the victory.
