Washington Basketball: 3 takeaways from Huskies win over Sacramento St.
The Washington basketball team continues winning at home beating the Sacramento State Hornets 57-41 on Friday night December 21. The Huskies now have a record of 8-4 with a home record of 6-0.
The Washington basketball team got off to another slow start, however, the Sacramento State Hornets after scoring two early treys struggled from the outside the rest of the way. Instead, they went inside upping their lead up to 20-11 almost eight minutes in.
After a pair of timeouts, SSU only scored two points in the remaining of the first half and the Huskies were able to cut the lead to 22-19 points at halftime. The Held their guests without a point in the last 6:16 minutes in the first half.
Washington scored 11 points straight to open the second half, making the score 30-22. The Hornets finally scored at the 15:35 mark making it 30-24 on a couple free throws. Senior guard David Crisp hit a three-pointer right after that to extend the lead to 33-24.
From the 12-minute mark on the Washington Huskies defense stepped up once again. Sac State made only five two-point field goals. The final score ended 57-41.
Same old song
Washington played the same theme in the first half shooting only 33 percent from the floor, making only eight shots in 24 attempts. This has been the same theme in almost every game this season. Its certainly been the problem in all four games they lost so far. UW was able to stay in the game early on, despite the poor shooting because of their defense.
The Huskies defense comes intensified
The Washington defense started out slow in the game in the same manner as the offense. UW allowed the Hornets to make some easy inside baskets. However, with 9:09 mark left in the first half Washington coach Mike Hopkins called a timeout with Sac State ahead 18-11. In the next minute and a half, the Hornets scored another two points to lead 20-11 so another timeout was taken.
Whatever Hopkins said to the players at the second break totally changed the game around. Sacramento made another two points after the Washington Huskies made four points so the lead was 22-15. The Huskies defense became so tough the Hornets didn’t score for another 12 minutes including the last six and a quarter minutes of the first half. The Huskies made four free throws to end the first half at 22-19.
The closest the Hornets got was eight points at the halfway mark of the second half with the Huskies leading 39-31. Washington disrupted Sac State’s rhythm, it didn’t look at all like they would get any closer and get a chance to win the game.
Despite the poor shooting in the first half the Huskies ended up making 21 out of 48 shots in the game for a shooting percentage of 43.8. Sacramento, on the other hand, made 12 of 46, or 26.1 percent. I have to say the Huskies defense turned around their offense. Washington had 11 steals in the game along with 10 block shots.
Matisse Thybulle, Nahziah Carter and Hameir Wright were big contributors
The Huskies were led in scoring by Matisse Thybulle and Noah Dickerson with 12 points each. However, Dickerson played only 15 minutes because he got in foul trouble early in the game and picked up his fourth foul early in the second half.
Carter had 11 points in the game playing 26 minutes off the bench. It was Thybulle and Carter whose defense especially got the Huskies going. Thybulle finished with seven steals and two blocked shots. Though he only played 21 minutes because of foul trouble Hameir Wright led the Huskies with seven rebounds and blocked five shots.
Next. Huskies beat EWU. dark
The Washington Huskies next game won’t be until January 1. They take on the University of California Fullerton Titans at home. The game will take place at 7 pm in Alaska Airlines Arena so watching the Rose Bowl at 2 pm won’t be a problem beforehand.