Huskies Outlast Oregon State 79-77

For the 2nd time in 3 weeks Oregon State hit a buzzer beating 3-pointer as time expired against Washington. Only this time the Huskies were up by 5 when it happened and Washington held on in a tight one by a score of 79-77. The win improves the Huskies’ record to 20-10 (10-7).

As they do every game the Huskies worked it inside early as Timmins had a missed dunk, got fouled on a missed layup, and Dickerson dunked it in the first three possessions. Oregon State also worked the ball inside early and while they had problems holding onto the ball, when they got a shot up it was going in and got their first lead at 6-4.

After a 1/5 start from the field the Husky offense came alive particularly from the outside. Matisse Thybulle hit consecutive 3-pointers and also got fouled driving the lane for 7 straight Husky points. He wasn’t the only Husky on fire though. David Crisp broke out of his shooting slump by canning his first two shots from beyond the arc and Dominic Green chipped in with his own pair of 3-pointers. Washington held a 7-10 point lead for much of the last 10 minutes or so of the half.

A quartet of Beavers kept them in the game. Only Drew Eubanks, Gligorie Rakocevic, Tres Tinkle, and Stephen Thompson Jr. scored in the half for OSU, combining for all 37 of their points. Thompson killed UW once again with a trio of 3-pointers and 12 points while Rakocevic was 5/5 from the field abusing Dickerson and Timmins down low. They shot 52% from the field to counter Washington’s scorching 60%.

Washington opened its largest lead at 11 on a Noah Dickerson dunk with 2:12 to go. But the Huskies wouldn’t score again in the half and Oregon State went on a 6-0 run to pull within 5 at 42-37.

Oregon State’s momentum carried into the 2nd half as they scored the first four points of the period to complete a 10-0 run. Washington got a basket to settle things down but it was answered by an Ethan Thompson deep 3 to tie the game at 44.

Noah Dickerson went to work and carried the Washington offense as he had 17 points with 14 minutes to go. But the defense just couldn’t get enough stops and Oregon State continued to hang around down just 2 at 55-53 at the under 12 timeout.

The refs finally started to take over the game after that. The Huskies were called for 5 fouls in 2 minutes including 3 on one possession. 2 of those were on Jaylen Nowell and gave him his 4th to send him to the bench. It looked like Washington might not be fully engaged as they went more than 3 minutes without a field goal but David Crisp hit a no, no, no, YES off the dribble 3-pointer to put the Huskies up by 1 at 62-61.

Noah Dickerson continued his yeoman’s work on offense and continually backed his guy down and scored with ease around the basket. Jaylen Nowell re-entered the game with 6 minutes left and a pair of free throws by him was part of a 7-0 run to give the Dawgs a 6 point lead, their largest of the second half with 4 minutes left.

The Beavers kept getting the ball to within 3 points as Stephen Thompson Jr. hit a foul line jumper with 1:29 left to bring it back to that margin. Jaylen Nowell hit a runner in isolation to go back up 5 at 74-69 as he’s done so many times this year. On the other end Washington finally got a stop as Matisse Thybulle got into the passing lines with a steal and Nowell ended up fouled with 40 seconds left. But he only made one of two to leave the margin at 6.

Oregon State missed a shot on the other end but about 6 players hit the court scrambling for the loose ball and it happened into the hands of Tres Tinkle under the basket who hit an and-1 to bring it back to 3 points. Nowell was able to take 6 seconds off the clock avoiding a steal and then hit both free throws to push the margin back to 5 with 9 seconds to go. Stephen Thompson Jr. countered with another runner to send it back to 3 and then Crisp was fouled with 2.6 seconds left.

Crisp drained both free throws and then Tres Tinkle hit his buzzer beater to arrive at the final score of 79-77.

Noah Dickerson was the game MVP with 25 points and 5 rebounds while Crisp, Nowell, and Thybulle all had 12 points.

The win puts the Huskies at 10-7 in Pac-12 play and in a 4-way tie for 3rd place. They conclude the regular season at home against Oregon at 1:30p on Saturday afternoon. A win would secure the Dawgs no worse than 6th place in the conference tournament and keep alive the hopes of an NCAA berth.

Key Observaitions

• As expected, Washington’s hot shooting start didn’t last the whole game. They were 6/9 to start the game but finished 2/7. David Crisp hit three 3-pointers for only the second time in conference play. He did it 7 times last year.
• Normally when Hameir Wright and Noah Dickerson share the court it’s with Noah at center and Wright on the wing. The Huskies reversed the positions for most of the game with good results. Wright had several good contests inside although he ended the game without a block. Sam Timmins’s role continues to diminish. He played just 9 minutes in this one despite starting both halves.
• Nahziah Carter had his signature highlight reel dunk per game. He also had a really nice play that bodes well for his future when he drove the ball, saw Dominic Green across the court in the corner, and weaved a pass around 3 sets of arms to hit him in perfect position to nail the 3-pointer.

• Tres Tinkle adjusted to the Washington zone on the perimeter by faking it to someone in the high post who wasn’t there and then getting both David Crisp and Matisse Thybulle to jump to cut it off. He then drove right past them into the empty space to be in a power position. This was great design by OSU and something to look for moving forward to see if other teams try it.
• Noah Dickerson had several iffy calls against him in a tight game late in the 2nd half. He always kept his composure though and headed to the other end. This is such a big improvement for his maturity. In the past he would’ve screamed at the refs and taken himself out of the rhythm of the game.
• Offensive rebounds kept OSU in the game as they had 16 second chance points. That made up for the fact that Washington only had 8 turnovers. However, the Dawgs only had 9 assists as well.
• Thybulle scored 12 points in the first half but was scoreless in the second. He had a wide open corner 3 with two minutes left that would’ve put UW up by 8 but it didn’t go down.
• Bill Walton was his normal self tonight featuring such classics as: “Have you ever been attacked by a beaver?” “Have you ever broken your neck?” “Have you ever been chased by a capybara?”

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