UW Women’s Basketball Beats Pacific 81-64

The UW Women’s Basketball team played the University of the Pacific Wednesday night at home. Both teams were undefeated going into this match up and while not as convincing as their last two wins, UW put Pacific away too, winning 81 - 64. All players scored again, but Dalayah Daniels led all scorers with 17 points. UW improves to 3-0 on the season.

UW and Pacific both got off to a shaky start, feeling each other out, missing baskets and competing for rebounds. UW’s pesky defense held up, as well as their rebounding, and they were first to get into a flow with Daniels and Schwartz both hitting 3’s. Liz Smith, Pacific’s best player, was held to 1-5 shooting in the first quarter. This was good because UW’s help defense was a step behind, allowing Pacific to get shots and second chances that just didn’t fall for them.

Sayvia Sellers started in Jayda Noble’s place today and the freshman went to work. Whenever she got the ball, she was looking for her teammates, creating space, or taking a high percentage shot. Lauren Schwartz was a key contributor in the first quarter, scoring 8 points which led all scorers. She got the ball behind the 3 point line to end the first quarter, missed it and UW ended the quarter cruising to a 24-12 lead.

Since the first quarter ended well, it looked like UW was going to go into the second quarter building on that momentum, but that was not the case. Instead, they missed several free throws in a row. Then, there was a situation where the ref called a blocking foul but Smith on Pacific protested heartily and so the refs obliged her and went back to review the call. Somehow Smith’s protests worked and a tech was issued to the UW bench. Smith made the two free throws and the momentum went to Pacific for the next few minutes.

Pacific’s game plan tonight seemed to be to pester Daniels, create lots of contact and try to get into her head and for a few minutes it worked. Pacific went on a 7-0 and got within 6 of UW. At this point, Daniels decided to start making her free throws and to just body them right back. She went on a scoring run and ended the second quarter with 17 points.

The real fun at the end of the second quarter was that with just a few seconds left in the quarter, Chloe Briggs got the ball as she was falling out of bounds, angled her body towards the basket and banked in a three. UW went on a 9-0 run to end the half, but only outscored Pacific 19-16 overall in the second quarter.

Starting the second half, Washington led 43-28. UW came out sluggish again, missing their first two shots, giving up a turnover, and then missing a three. They finally scored with a long pass upcourt to Schwartz, and then another quick layin in transition by Sellers.

In a very worrisome and strange turn of events, Daniels stayed on the floor a few seconds longer than anyone would want her to, appearing to be injured. She left the court on her own, didn’t go to the locker room and didn’t receive any treatment on the sidelines but her teammate shot the free throws for her so we assumed that Daniels was out for the game.

As Noble was already out, Schwartz had 4 fouls and Ladine had 3 fouls, things were not looking promising, but the Dawgs hung on and ended the third quarter up 60-46.

As the fourth quarter started, Ladine sprung to action getting a steal, a field goal, a big rebound and then a three, which stretched the Husky lead to 20 points. Daniels came back in for a few minutes, because we can only assume she found a loophole in the rule book for returning after not shooting your free throws: saying you have blood showing. Hopefully UW utilizes this loophole in future close games.

UW pulled away and won 81 - 64. Schwartz fouled out in the fourth quarter, but 8 different Husky players had a three pointer in this game. In fact, in the first three games, 9/11 Huskies had a three pointer in a game. The only two who didn’t were Gilmer and Anderson, two bigs. Daniels led all scorers with 17 points and Sellers played 35 minutes, the most of any Husky.

Two takeaways:

• UW shows a lot of poise and composure when they play. They can really run and push the tempo, they can pass upcourt and know where their teammates are so they can score a quick layin off an opponent’s miss.
• Wow the free throw situation was rough. 6-14 from the line for 43%. Pacific shot 13-14 from the line for 93% and thankfully they weren’t in the game in any other way because UW would have lost this one if it was close.

UW improves to 3-0 on the season and they play Seattle U next at home on Saturday the 18th at 1pm.