Huskies Rout Seattle 73-41 For First Win of the Season

It’s fair to say that the Washington Huskies were a little desperate going up against a familiar foe following a trio of losses to open the season. But Washington was able to get out some of their frustration in a 73-41 beatdown of the Redhawks. Nate Pryor started in place of Quade Green (recent non-COVID illness) though each was effective as they combined for 31 points and both ended in double figures to lead the Dawgs to the victory.

It was Hameir Wright who started things off with Washington’s first points on a 3-point make and followed that up with a drive that earned him a pair of free throws. Seattle was able to get the ball inside and get the Husky centers to commit to stopping the floater. That allowed them to make some nifty passes to the waiting Emeka Udenyi on the baseline for layups or hook shots. Udenyi had the first 3 baskets for Seattle on their first 3 attempts.

Quade Green entered the game as part of the first substitutions and made his presence felt canning a 3-pointer working off a screen at the top of the key. After a pair of makes by Seattle brought the deficit to 5 at 13-8, Green blazed by his defender for a layup and then made another 3-pointer to tie the game and bring him up to 8 points.

Seattle hit a runner in the lane to retake the lead but it quickly became the Nate Pryor show. Pryor scored 8 of Washington’s next 10 points over the next 3 minutes to take the Huskies from down by a deuce to up by 6 at 23-17 with 7:39 remaining including a pair of and-1 shots.

The Husky defense stopped biting on the shots in the middle and Seattle didn’t show much of an ability to punish them. After a Bajema floater off the glass, Bey and Pryor knocked down back-to-back 3’s and really broke things open for the Dawgs stretching the lead to double digits for the first time.

Pryor ultimately missed a layup as the halftime buzzer sounded but his 11 halftime points were a big part of UW’s 37-22 lead. The Dawgs made 5/9 three-point attempts and only turned the ball over 7 times for their cleanest offensive half on the season.

Things started off slow in the 2nd half but Nate Roberts finally made a basket following a possession with a pair of offensive rebounds and 3 defensive fouls by Seattle. Roberts gained some confidence and the next time down the floor hit a nice lefty jump hook to push the lead out to 17. Quade Green entered the game and hit back-to-back 3-pointers with a Seattle basket in the middle to put the Dawgs up 47-24 with 15 minutes remaining.

Washington’s defense absolutely stifled Seattle as even when they got open looks from the perimeter they were rattled enough to miss them. The Redhawks managed just 8 points through the first 15 minutes of the second half with the only easy possessions coming on some free throw line jumpers by Riley Grisgby. At that point Washington had more than doubled up Seattle by a score of 64-30.

The Huskies were able to empty the bench and Seattle was able to slightly narrow the final margin to 73-41. Quade finished with a team-high 18 points while Pryor had 13 points with 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. Washington decisively won the rebounding battle for the first time this season by a 41-29 margin.

The football game may be in doubt but Washington is also next scheduled to play against Oregon this Saturday in their first conference home game of the season.

Double Bonus Dots

• There was no earthly way that the Huskies were going to end the season shooting under 20% from 3-pt range. Regression to the mean was coming in a good way and it arrived tonight. Washington shot 8/15 from the 3-point line including a 4/4 effort from Quade Green. When the Huskies are making shots from the perimeter it just makes everything else look so much easier. Over the rest of the season the results will be somewhat in between but it’s at least good to know it is in fact possible for this team to shoot above 50% from deep in a single game at least once in a while.
• Nate Pryor got the start with Quade Green under the weather and he showed an ability to penetrate that has been a struggle for them lately. His final line of 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists is what Washington needs out of their secondary guard whether it’s Pryor who consistently is able to do it or someone else. My guess is that Pryor starting won’t be a normal thing but he might have surpassed Marcus Tsohonis in the rotation.
• This is going to be the easiest opposing group of bigs the Huskies play the rest of the season but it was a solid game for Nate Roberts. He wound up just shy of a double double with 10 points and 8 rebounds but that’s the kind of stat line the Huskies need from their big man. He had about 3 times he couldn’t handle a pass that might’ve resulted in a layup had he been able to do so but otherwise it was a great lift especially on the offensive glass with 5 boards.
• Erik Stevenson continues to struggle with just 3 points, 3 rebounds, and 0 assists. But he had a much better night than the box score would show. He had at least 4 passes that should’ve been assists had a player been able to catch it and/or if they had knocked down a wide open shot. He had 2 steals and would’ve had a 3rd if not for a ticky-tack foul chasing down a loose ball. There were definitely a couple of wild shots I wish he’d have passed on but it really feels like a breakout game is right around the corner.
• Riley Sorn continued to show quality minutes off the bench and pretty clearly has surpassed J’Raan Brooks in the rotation at this point. He’s actually got some decent passing skills for someone his size which you wouldn’t expect.

• Cole Bajema got a solid amount of playing time tonight and didn’t have a great shooting night as he went just 1/5 from the floor. However, he showed aggressiveness driving the ball and was able to be an effective defensive rebounder with 6 of them.
• It was a fairly quiet night for Jamal Bey but he put up a good stat line with 9 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals against just 1 turnover. If he can be an efficient 3rd or 4th option on offense while playing above average defense like he did tonight it makes things that much easier for the rest of the team.