Huskies Rout Grambling State In Tune-Up Game

Grambling State hit just five shots and scored 13 points in the first half of play against the Huskies on Wednesday night.

That's all you really need to know to get the bigger picture of what went down during the UW's 86-38 rout of the Tigers at Alaska Airlines Arena.

The Huskies forced 17 turnovers, outscored the Tigers 50-18 in the paint and had all but two of 12 players score as they recorded their ninth victory of the season in what was a tune-up game before they take on No. 15 Oklahoma at the MGM Showcase in Las Vegas on Saturday night. The Huskies are off to their best start since the 2005-2006 season, in which they started 11-0.

Shawn Kemp Jr. scored a career-high 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting and Robert Upshaw tallied 15 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks in just 22 minutes to lead the Huskies. The UW pretty much just threw the ball up towards the rim and let Upshaw or Kemp Jr. come down with it for a dunk or layup against an undersized and overmatched Grambling State squad.

Upshaw provided what was probably the highlight of the night in the first half when he thundered home an and-1, one handed slam after a Mike Anderson offensive rebound. We have all seen how dominating he can be but lets hope "Paintgod" has his national coming-out game against the Sooners on Saturday.

Not much guard play was needed but once again Nigel Williams-Goss flirted with a triple-double, finishing with nine points, six rebounds and 11 assists. Andrew Andrews and Mike Anderson added 16 and 10 points respectively.

The Huskies used runs of 17-3 and 18-0 in the first half to take a 45-13 lead into the break. In the first half the Huskies outscored the Tigers 30-4 in the paint, 14-0 on second chance points and 8-0 in fastbreak points.

In the second half it was more of the same with the Huskies going on a 23-8 run and building their lead to as many 51 points. Walk-ons Dan Kingma, Greg Bowman and K.J. Garrett all saw action, and both Kingma and Bowman scored two points.

Donaven Dorsey may be the only Husky who would like a do-over. The freshman fouled out in nine minutes and missed his only two shots. Dorsey's second shot was a corner three that drilled the side of the backboard, or as what I like to call it, a Hikeem Stewart.

Since lighting it up from behind the arc at the Wooden Legacy Tournament, Dorsey has failed to score in the past three games. Hopefully a change of scenery will get him going in Vegas.

Are the Huskies ready to take down Oklahoma? Leave your answers and thoughts from tonight's game in the comments section below, and don't forget to follow Erik on Twitter.