Washington defeated UCLA at home last night 70-63 behind the clutch shooting of CJ Wilcox who popped in 24 points in the second half to lead the Huskies. It was one of the brightest performances by an individual player this season for the Dawgs and it came at exactly the right time.
The Husies haven't been playing well as of late. Isaiah Thomas and Matthew Bryan-Amaning have struggled most of the second half of the season with PG Abdul Gaddy out of the lineup. It was was pretty obvious after Sunday's home loss to WSU that this team needed somebody to start standing up in a big way.
The Huskies have some talent buried on that bench and while Wilcox has shown some sparks here and there this was definitely his coming out party. CJ connected on 7 of 8 shots in the second half. He also drained 6 of 6 free throws. His defense was just as impressive as the Huskies dialed up the pressure against the Bruins.
This team still has a lot of holes heading into the tournament and they still need to get by USC on Saturday but the emergence of Wilcox could be a good omen moving forward. I think anything that takes the pressure off IT and MBA from the outside will allow those two to shake their slumps.
The Huskies can still finish second in conference if they beat USC and the always dangerous Cougars knock off the Bruins in Pullman.
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