Recap: Washington Survives OT 99-95 in Pullman Behind Huge Nights from Murray, Andrews

In a game mostly controlled by Ernie Kent's Cougars, Washington recovered in the second half via a flurry of scoring from guards Dejounte Murray, Andrew Andrews, and Davis Crisp, only to see their small lead disappear in the final minutes and overtime triggered. Overtime was wildly contested and the Cougars had multiple opportunities to force double overtime, but ultimately the Huskies outlasted them to go 3-0 in the Pac-12.

The contest started off well enough for the Huskies as they took the 2-0 lead via a Noah Dickerson layup. The two rivals traded baskets and turnovers for the first ten minutes of the contest until the Cougs began to pull away with about 9:00 left in the first half.

The combination of Hawkinson and Clifford underneath overwhelmed the Huskies and the fouls quickly began to add up for Chriss and Dickerson. A pair of three-pointers, one from Murray and one from Crisp, helped keep the halftime deficit reasonable at 43-49 in favor of WSU.

To begin the final twenty minutes the Huskies were buoyed by a handful of Dickerson baskets, including a layup that tied things up 56-56 with 16:17 remaining.

Dime would score the next six points for Washington to take it to 68-68 with just over nine minutes left.

In the next few minutes the Huskies went on a small run behind the play of Murray, Andrews, and Crisp. Dime put down a glorious dunk to grow the lead to 85-76, and for a time it appeared the contest was nearly decided.

WSU answered with a furious 8-0 run, capped off with a highly questionable fast break foul call that fouled out Malik Dime and gave the Cougs a chance to tie things up. Instead, Renard Suggs hit 1-2 to trim the lead to 85-84 with 1:21 left.

Andrews was fouled on the other end and hit both to give the Huskies a three-point cushion, only to see Ike hit a crafty layup on the other end. On the next possession Ike drew a foul on a pump fake and missed the first free throw. With a chance to tie things up on the second shot, he hit it.

In the final possession Andrews tried to draw a foul call on a pump fake. Hawkinson did indeed jump into Andrews, but the refs didn't think it was enough and sent things to overtime.

The Huskies lost both Chriss and Dickerson to fouls early in overtime, but maintained a lead for the first several minutes of the extra period.

With just under a minute left Andrews hit a free throw to make it 96-93. With a chance to bring the margin to two possessions he rimmed out the second attempt. Hawkinson got a slow-rolling layup to convert through contact but failed to convert the three-point play that would have tied the game.

Andrews was fouled immediately on the other end and once again hit 1-2, failing to give the Huskies a three-point cushion.

In the final ten seconds Ike Iroegbu, the best player on the floor all night, got an open jumper but missed, failing to trigger double overtime in Pullman.

Andrews finally managed to hit both to ice a wild, wild contest in Pullman that ultimately came down to free throws.

Andrews led the Huskies in scoring with 29, and it was ultimately a typical Andrews game. He shot poorly from the field (7-17), pretty well from beyond the arc (2-5), and made up for it all by hitting a ton of free throws (13-17). Murray was right behind him with 25 points. Each player logged 7 assists and they shared a single turnover between them.

With Chriss rendered a non-factor through foul trouble, Dickerson stepped up and scored 16 points on 8-11 shooting in his best showing of the year. Dime was huge in the second half, ending up with 14 points, 3 offensive rebounds, and 3 blocks before he fouled out.

For the Cougs, Hawkinson not only scored 20 points, he grabbed 20 rebounds. He was a free throw away from forcing double OT and likely would have feasted with Washington's top three bigs fouled out. Very uncharacteristic for an 80% shooter.

Iroegbu was simply ridiculous, as the Huskies couldn't deal with his speed at all. He scored 28 points on 11-18 shooting. Like Hawkinson, he had an opportunity to make a great night even better by forcing another period of overtime. He had an open look with a handful of seconds left and he couldn't convert.

While I'm extremely proud of the Huskies for fighting back in the second half and then winning in overtime despite horrific foul trouble, the result in the final few minutes of overtime was more about luck than anything. The Huskies missed free throws to trigger both Hawkinson and Ike's late chances, and they can thank their stars that things worked out regardless.

The Huskies have won their first road game of the year, beaten an in-state rival, and moved to 3-0 in the Pac-12.