Washington Beats Eastern Washington 90-80

Washington was feeling itself offensively as the Huskies beat the Eastern Washington Eagles 90-80 tonight at Hec Ed.

Quade Green scored 20 points off the bench, Jaden McDaniels added 17 points of his own, and perhaps most importantly, Sam Timmins hit a three pointer! Six Huskies scored in the double digits. As a team, Washington made nearly 47% of their field goals and hit a respectable 81% of their 36 free throw attempts.

Perhaps not getting the start tonight was the motivation that Green needed to help find his game. In addition to his 20 points, he added 8 assists and looked good defensively too. Despite not starting, ultimately, Green still had the third most minutes on the team with 31.

Things did not start well for Washington. EWU took an early 10-1 lead before Green entered the game about 4 ¹⁄₂ minutes in and helped to turn the tide. Washington came back to take a commanding lead on a 20-3 run, before Eastern answered with a 10-2 run of their own to tie the game at 23 all with 7:43 to go in the half. From that point on the Huskies took control of the game and never relinquished the lead, finishing the first half with a season high 47 points.

The outcome of the game was never really in doubt by the second half. Eastern never got closer than within 9 points of Washington and was down by as many as 20 at one point. It was during the second half that the true highlight of the game occurred. The big man from New Zealand, Sam Timmins, hit a three point shot. It was his first made three since January 2017. Never mind that he followed it up with a second attempt from deep a couple of minutes later that sailed way to the right of the basket. The fact that he made one at all is a story in and of itself. In fact, Timmins did work tonight scoring 11 points and hauling in 6 rebounds in just 18 minutes of playing time.

Really though, the main highlights of the game are of course dunks made by Nahziah Carter, who finished the night with 13 points and 6 boards. Specifically, these two dunks:

Other Huskies who had notable offensive contributions included Isiah Stewart with 12 points and Jamal Bey with 11 points. Bey got the start in place of Green and played 35 minutes of quality ball, going just 3-8 from the floor, including a three pointer, but 4-4 from the line. Where Bey’s presence was really noticeable though was on the defensive side of the ball. He had 5 steals and was also active on the boards with 5 rebounds, including 2 offensive rebounds. Despite a noticeable size advantage, Washington only out-rebounded EWU by a slim 36-35 margin. However, Bey, Stewart, Wright, Carter and Timmins all had at least 5 boards in the game, showing a solid team wide effort off the glass.

There were some frustrating elements to this game, as the refs were whistle happy all night. Both McDaniels and Stewart fouled out with more than 4 minutes to go in the game. One player on Eastern also fouled out. Both teams combined for 49 personal fouls. The Huskies were in the bonus with 15 minutes to go in the second half. Washington did manage to out score Eastern by 17 points at the foul line, which was likely the biggest influence on the outcome of this game. Regardless of how ugly it was at times, it was a good win.

No. 22 Washington is now 7-1 on the season, with their lone loss coming to a 7-1 Tennessee team (they’re now ranked No. 21) in Toronto. The Huskies signature win so far as been an upset of No. 16 Baylor on a pro-Washington neutral site in Anchorage. After a slow offensive start to the season, the past five games have seen the Huskies average nearly 80 points per game, rounding out with their season high of 90 points tonight. They’ll need to keep that offensive momentum going, as they host No. 9 Gonzaga on Sunday and look to break a 5-game losing streak to the Zags.

Go Dawgs.