Washington won its sixth straight game after defeating Stanford 80-64 at Hec Ed behind Jaylen Nowell’s 22-point effort.
Nowell’s 14 points in the first half, supported by 13 points from Naziah Carter helped to lead a strong offensive team effort by Washington. Of Carter’s 13 points, 11 came in the second half. Nowell did a lot of his damage hitting mid-range jumpers, while Carter and a number of other Huskies attacked the rim. Dominic Green made 3-4 three pointers and scored 11 points. David Crisp rounded out the list double-digit scorers for Washington by going 4-13, including 0-3 from deep, but finished the game with 10 points. Crisp has been on a bit of an offensive tear recently, so this game saw him cooling off just a little bit.
The Huskies played very well on the defensive end too, holding the Cardinal to just 3-15 from behind the arc, a season low for Stanford. Beyond that, Washington also forced Stanford into 18 turnovers leading to 24 points. The UW only committed six. Stanford sophomore forward KZ Okpala, the second leading scorer in the Pac-12, really struggled in the first half against Washington’s zone. By the second half he clearly had it figured out and scored 18 points, finishing with 22.
After a brief early Stanford lead, Washington took the lead at the 13:31 mark of the first half on a Crisp jumper. From that point on Washington never relinquished its lead. The Huskies lead by as many as 15 in the first half, which ended with the Dawgs up 37-24. After leading by 16 points early in the second half, Stanford was able to close within 9 points with 10:16 to go on a jumper by Okpala, but that would be as close as they would get. A Thybulle dunk (see below) with 3:25 to go felt like the nail in the coffin for Stanford and gave the Huskies a 14-point lead.
Matisse Thybulle #TougherTogether
— Washington Men's Basketball (@UW_MBB) January 18, 2019
>> ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/XYLnFRni1J
Other notable efforts by Husky players include 8 points, 5 steals and a block by Matisse Thybulle, as well as a solid game from Sam Timmins. The big kiwi filled out his sheet by scoring a season high 6 points while also grabbing 4 boards, 2 steals and 2 blocks. After getting into early foul trouble, Noah Dickerson kind of disappeared tonight. The senior big man scored 3 points to go along with two rebounds in 11 minutes.
My favorite highlight of the night was this slick layup by Crisp:
HOW #TougherTogether
— Washington Men's Basketball (@UW_MBB) January 18, 2019
>> ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/I2QIQNYSVP
But this driving baseline dunk by Carter gets an honorable mention:
this dunk by Carter...#TougherTogether
— Washington Men's Basketball (@UW_MBB) January 18, 2019
>> ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/qkJkUAEyiE
Also, lest I forget, the Dawgs are now 13-4 and 4-0 in Pac-12 play for the first time since 2012. That’s good for first place in the conference standings. They’re also undefeated at home this season (9-0).
Go Dawgs!
Hype level #TougherTogether pic.twitter.com/rdg5qcdMlI
— Washington Men's Basketball (@UW_MBB) January 18, 2019