With one foot behind the three-point line, Washington’s freshman point guard Keyon Menifield had a single strand of his dreadlocks obstructing his view of the basket.  Trailing by 2 points late in the game, he calmly shook his head right, then left to move the tuft of hair out of his eyes.  He drew his right back over the 3-point line and Washington’s 6-1 point guard rose up over Oregons 7-0 center Nate Bittle.

Bittle certainly had to respect Menifield’s quickness as he’d gashed the Oregon defense for 19 points already on an array of moves.

Maybe Bittle took Menifield’s head movement as a fake as he stayed back and didn’t close out the shooter.

Either way, with his lower lip was held together by stitches from a rough loss to the Washington State Cougars last Saturday night, Menifield calmly drained the 3 to put Washington up by one, 61-60.

After an Oregon bucket he was chest-bumping his teammates with 40.3 seconds left in regulation after dropping another 3 to put UW up 64-62.

Both shots proved to be pivotal in UW’s 72-71 overtime victory over Oregon in Seattle.

On what was Washington’s annual blackout game, the game was delayed 40 minutes by a malfunctioning basket assembly.

After a seesaw first 30 minutes with each team going on mini-surges, the Ducks hit five straight shots from the field as they built an eight-point lead 50 to 42 with 12:11 left in the regulation.

From that point it became the Keyon Menifield show, stitched up lip and all.

With 11 points to his credit, he knifed through the Ducks defense and hit a pull-up jumper from 10 feet out to pull UW within 6.  After an Oregon miss the Husky freshman drove to the basket and was fouled.  He knocked down both free throws bringing the Huskies within four, 50-46 at the 11:20 mark.

Washington did a fantastic job of defending the rim with Meah on the bench with 4 fouls.  Oregon possessed the ball for the next 75 seconds, missing 5 shots on a single trip down court.

Washington senior Jamal Bey dropped in a 3 and Menifield secured a loose ball, curling under the basket for a reverse-layup to cut the deficit to a single point.

At that point Menifield was 7-8 from the floor with 4 assists.

Oregon rebuilt a 5-point lead 58-53 with 4:30 remaining.  Menifield, who played 43 of the 45 minutes, dropped in a floater from 15 feet.

In regulation alone the game was tied 11 times and the teams traded the lead 18 times.

Like his Washington Football counterpart against Oregon, Michael Penix who found Taj Davis and Ja’Lynn Polk delivering pinpoint scoring passes, Menifield delivered strikes at the rim for Meah and Brooks late in the game.

Menifield grabbed a loose ball after Brooks blocked a shot and hit Brooks in stride for a layup.  The Kentucky transfer was fouled and hit the and-1.

30 seconds later Menifield, with the half of an Oregon defender in his face nailed a 3 to give UW its first lead since early in the contest.  That bucket gave UW a 61-60 lead and came with 2 minutes remaining.  Washington’s previous lead was 33-32 on Cole Bajema’s only three of the night, 47 seconds into the second half.

Entering the contest Oregon was connecting on 55-percent of their 2-point attempts.

In OT Menifield’s 15-foot jumper started off the scoring for Washington as he hit a career-high 27 points.  He picked up another loose ball and found a streaking Korin Johnson for a layup with 3:22 left in the game, putting Washington up 1.  Oregon reclaimed a one-point lead, 69-68.

After a timeout Menifield delivered a cold-blooded backdoor lob to Brooks that would make Michael Penix blush.

lt would be Bey who hit the game-winner with 28.3 seconds left but the night belonged to Menifield.  He finished with 27 points, 7 assists and second on the team with 5 rebounds. He also added a block and a steal.

Washington climbs back over .500 to 14-13 overall and 6-10 in the conference.  Oregon State comes to town Saturday night at 5:00.  The game will be broadcast on the Pac -12 Network.