Dawgs Burnt in Tempe

The Washington Huskies fell to the Arizona State Devils, 86-75 in a late-night game Wednesday. The Dawgs were soundly defeated and fell to 2-6 in conference play.

The Huskies started out in the 2-3 zone with some positive results. They took an 8-3 lead into the first timeout of the first half. However, that didn’t last for long.

Lapses in scoring and poor defense were the culprits tonight as the Huskies mustered just 31% shooting from the field in the first half.

As is the trademark for this team, they allowed easy shots and there were holes in the zone that the Devils took advantage. Despite the poor play, the Huskies found themselves down just 5 at half.

An early ASU run in the second led to an early Romar timeout. The Dawgs were down double digits before a 10-0 brought the game to 50-47 midway through the second half.

But, the inability to keep scoring after the run and more 3s from ASU brought the lead back up to 15 under 7 minutes. Tra Holder went on his own run of 3 straight 3s as the UW help defense apparently went to bed early.

Fultz attempted to take the game over but it was too little too late. On several straight possessions, he did not pass and went straight to the basket. The Huskies scored.

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

But, this tweet by Christian Caple sums up the Husky defense tonight…and perhaps the season.

Fultz messed around and almost had a triple double (hope you got the reference). He finished with 28 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds.

Shannon Evans scored 25 and Tra Holder had 23 to pace the Sun Devils that now move to 3-5 in conference and 10-11 overall. The Sun Devils shot 44% from 3 point range.

Halfway through conference play and it looks like the Dawgs are who we thought they were. They are now 9-11 overall and just in front of Colorado and Oregon State (both 0-7) in the standings.

Some notes:

-Carlos Johnson tries hard but it’s clear he’s undersized. He has a hard time defending inside and just can’t get contested rebounds. He also had a boneheaded play halfway through the 2^nd half. With the Dawgs only down 4, Johnson stole a ball on defense but stepped out of bounds on what would have been a 3 on 1 breakaway. Instead, the ball went back to ASU and the Devils scored on the subsequent possession.

-Not the night for David Crisp. Terrible night of shooting (2-10 from 3) and he fouled out. Dan Kingma saw some time in the last minute of the game.

-Speaking of 3s, Dom Green has not hit a meaningful one in some time. In the attempted comeback, Green did not make any. He was 0-4 from 3 and 0-7 overall from the field. Not what you want from a “sharpshooter.”

-Husky “bigs” Sam Timmons and Matthew Atewe...no words.

-The curtain thing the ASU students do is awesome except it seems like the students don’t go behind it with a plan. They sort of freeze and then decide to jump up and down.

-9pm start in Arizona for this Wednesday night game. Great for the student-athlete?

For more intriguing commentary, you can follow me on twitter @dilletaunt.