Huskies block Buffaloes, 95-83

The Huskies extended its modest two game Pac -12 win streak at home with a convincing win over the Colorado Buffaloes Wednesday night at Alaska Airlines Arena.  The Huskies had a huge lead most of the game and held on late to remain in first place in the Pac-12 with a 4-1 conference record.  The team also set a record for blocked shots with 15.

At the first break at 14:14 of the first half, there were no fouls on any of the Husky bigs - a good sign.  The Huskies capitalized on a couple early CU turnovers and turned them into dunks – foreshadowing the rest of the game.  

Despite the dunks there was concern over defensive rebounding.  At the under 12 time out, the Buffaloes outrebounded the Huskies 8-3 with 4 of the Colorado rebounds coming on the offensive glass.  Notably, the Huskies ended the game leading the Buffs in overall rebounds 39 to 34.  Although fouls were not a problem early, turnovers persisted.  Marquese Chriss had two turnovers in the first 6 minutes.

The Huskies had an assortment of good alley-oops including Dejounte Murray to Chriss and then David Crisp to Malik Dime.  

At the under 8 minute break, the Husky were shooting 65% on 11-17 shooting.  The cool stat at this point was that the Dawgs scored 10 points off of 7 Colorado turnovers versus the Buffs scoring 2 off of 5 Dawg turnovers.

Murray drew an "and 1" from Josh Scott giving him his 2^nd foul and putting him on the bench until late in the first half. 

Washington opened up a 33-22 lead over Colorado. But offensive rebounds and 3 pointers kept the Buffaloes in striking distance.  The good news was that the Dawgs kept scoring. 

The first half ended with the Huskies leading 47-33. Murray led all scorers after the first half with 12 points and Andrews and Chriss added 8. The Huskies shot 60% at the half.

The Huskies caught fire in the second half with back to back shots from Murray and Andrews which brought the lead to 20 at 62-42.

The Huskies transition game was on point tonight as they were able to rebound and get up the court quickly most of the night.  They also were able to get a lot of shots in the paint.  On the defensive end, the Huskies were able to stymie Josh Scott (most of the time) and cured the ills of the first half Buffalo offensive rebounding (for the most part).

For the Dawgs, it was a block party, as TNT's Kenny Smith says, and everyone was invited.  Dime had 7 blocks (in 24 minutes) and Chriss added 5 to pace the Huskies with 15 blocks for the night which set the all-time school record.

Colorado went on a 10-0 in 1:50 at the 10-minute mark in the second half to bring the lead to 12.  But an Andrews 3 stopped the run.  In fact, the Huskies built the lead back up 20. 

But, Colorado kept in the game with a couple stops and a couple 3s after the Buffs went to a half-court trapping defense which the Huskies did not handle well.  The bad period of play caused Romar to call a timeout at 6:29.   The Buffaloes were able to keep within striking distance and were able to shave the lead to 7 with 1:32 remaining.

However, Andrew Andrews and his steady free throw shooting helped keep the Buffs at bay.  Andrews built up his points per game average by hitting 16-17 from the line and 10 in a row when it mattered at the end.

Andrews finished with 33 points. Chriss had a great night with 17 points on 8-9 shooting from the field.  Murray added 17 as well.  The aforementioned Dime had 10 points, 6 rebounds in addition to his 7 blocks.

Andrews moved passed the likes of Brandon Roy and Deon Luton on the all-time Huskies scoring list.

The Buffaloes were led by Dominique Collier's 21 points and 6-7 from 3 point range.  Josh Scott, the second leading scorer in the Pac-12 added 18 points but had trouble from the presence of Dime.

The Huskies are 5-1, 13-5 overall and lead the Pac-12 heading into their game Sunday night against Utah.  Colorado falls to 14-5 and 3-3 in the conference.