Huskies Dominate in 106-55 Shellacking of Bethune-Cookman

The Bethune-Cookman Wildcats traveled for 55 hours to get to Seattle due to the power outage at the Atlanta airport. Their game against UW must have felt as if it took twice that long. The Huskies poured it on in one of the most one-sided 2nd halves (63-19!!!) I’ve ever seen as UW went home with the victory 106-55. The game wasn’t always that lopsided though.

The Huskies got off to a good start taking a quick 8-2 lead by getting the ball inside to Sam Timmins and Noah Dickerson repeatedly. That kept up as the lead got to 17-9 with 14 of those points coming in the paint, the only exception a David Crisp 3. The Huskies’ press worked to create some turnovers including an emphatic transition slam by Nahziah Carter. The lead swelled to 25-12 and it looked like the Huskies would cruise early.

But Bethune Cookman hung around and finally started knocking down shots. The Wildcats at one point were 7-12 from deep if you count a fouled 3-point attempt for which they hit all 3 free throws. The Huskies shot well too (6-12 from beyond the arc) but trading jump shots played to BC’s advantage. The Huskies attempted just 4 free throws in the entire half and the first of those came with just 3:30 remaining. This for a UW team that is 6th in the country in percentage of free throws taken per field goal attempt against a team that had given up 42+ free throw attempts in a game twice this year. The Wildcats got to within one point at 35-34 before eventually settling for a 43-36 deficit at halftime.

However, from the beginning of the 2nd half the Huskies asserted control and put their foot on the Wildcats’ throats. Almost every possession ended in a Bethune-Cookman turnover and a fast break either layup or dunk for UW. And most of those plays were not amazing athletic plays by the Huskies. The Wildcats simply threw the ball straight to Husky defenders or fans sitting in chairs on the baseline. Bethune-Cookman had adrenaline to keep them going in the 1st half but they completely ran out of gas once it wore off at halftime.

Pick your statistic and UW dominated. The Huskies shot 75% from 3-point range (9-12) in the 2nd half and finished at 15 of 24 for the game. They blocked 15 shots. They forced 24 turnovers including 17 in the 2nd half. That led to a 35-11 advantage in points off turnovers.

UW inserted Dan Kingma in the game with about 7 minutes left and walk-ons Greg Bowman and Jason Crandall shortly thereafter. Unlike the game against Kennesaw State, the bench crew extended the lead rather than caused it to shrink. Part of that was due to Dominic Green who finished tied for the team lead with 18 points. David Crisp also had 18 points with 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

Key Observations

• It’s hard to take much from this game because of the travel situation for Bethune-Cookman. They may be one of the worst D-1 programs out there but they showed in the 1st half they could play. The second half looked like they replaced their team with a bunch of guys plucked from a pickup game at the IMA.
• Dominic Green came two away from setting a career high with 18 points. It’s the first time this year he scored more than 7. Last game he got a DNP-Coach’s Decision and hopefully this will get him back on track. You could see what a difference some confidence did for him. Granted every one of his 6 makes was completely unguarded but he’s missed his share of unmarked 3’s in his Husky career. A 6/9 performance might be what he needs to get going just in time for conference play.
• Matisse Thybulle had 7 steals which was 2 away from the all-time Washington single game record of 9 by UW broadcast color guy Jason Hamilton. Matisse struggled with his shot going just 4 for 12 from the floor but was once again a monster on defense.
• David Crisp had a terrible first half. On 4 different occasions he dribbled down the court and immediately launched a contested 3-pointer without once trying to set an offense. He made only one of those 4. In the 2nd half on the few times they didn’t get a transition basket, Jaylen Nowell initiated the offense. David Crisp spotted up behind the line and went 3 of 3 on 3-pointers with his feet set. Crisp will occasionally have a game like Kansas where he figures out the whole distributor thing but this team works so much better when he is saved from his own decision making.
• Noah Dickerson had one of his quietest nights of the year with only 10 points and 6 rebounds. He scored 6 of the first 8 points in the game and looked like he’d be unstoppable. But the Huskies went away from him and he picked up his 3rd foul less than 4 minutes into the 2nd half. That’s when the Huskies went on their run and he never re-entered the game to finish with a season low 16 minutes.
• As mentioned above, UW had 15 blocks in this game. 4 of those were by Sam Timmins who set a career high. 3 of them were by Hameir Wright who tied a career high. 3 of them were by Jaylen Nowell who had just 2 in his career to this point. Meanwhile Dominic Green finished with a lowly 2 blocks. Tsk tsk.
• Finally, Carlos Johnson brought down the house with one of the best dunks in Hec-Ed in a long time. And props to David Crisp for the “run down the tunnel because you can’t take it anymore” celebration.

The Huskies’ next game will be at home on Friday night at 8p against a good Montana team that should compete for the Big Sky title. That will conclude non-conference play and give the Dawgs a chance to exceed last years’ win total already.

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