Despite being down several players, the Huskies had one of their most efficient games of the season against the visiting Buckeyes
SEATTLE — The Washington Huskies men's basketball team entered a game against the Ohio State Buckeyes on Jan. 11 shorthanded and coming off two-straight losses.
Whether it was the guiding hand of the program's all-time leading scorer Christian Welp, who had his No. 40 retired by the team Sunday, or a laser-focused mindset, or both, what followed was the most efficient game of the season for the Huskies.
Washington connected on half of its shots (28-for-56) to beat Ohio State 81-74 on Jan. 11 in front of a crowd over 8,000 people at Alaska Airlines Arena.
According to UW head coach Danny Sprinkle, it was the most well-executed game he's seen from his team in the year-and-a-half he's been on Montlake.
"It's probably the best-executed game since I've been here to be honest," Sprinkle said after the game. "I never felt like we weren't organized offensively or defensively. (Ohio State) does a good job switching from their zone (defense) to man and then sometimes they'll be in zone for two passes and get to man. And I thought our guys did a really good job handling. The ball was moving. The ball had energy tonight. ... I hope (the team) saw that's the reason we were successful tonight."
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In the first half, the Huskies had to navigate through an early advantage from the Buckeyes.
With 11 minutes, 51 seconds left in the first half, Ohio State led 21-12 against Washington and looked poised to pull-away.
Instead, the Huskies scored five points to pull within two possessions of the Buckeyes. The two sides went back-and-forth for the rest of the first half, with Washington knotting things up 36-36 with 40 seconds left.
Washington went into halftime trailing 38-36.
Sprinkle was confident enough in how his team played in the first half to not make any halftime adjustments, per his postgame comments. For the first two minutes of the second half, it looked like that might have been a mistake.
As was the case in their last two losses, the Huskies fell prey to an early second-half run by their opponents. Ohio State led 45-38 with 18:10 left in the game.
Unlike UW's prior two defeats at the hands of Indiana and Purdue, respectively, the Huskies didn't allow their opponents to pull ahead to a double-digit lead. After the Buckeyes went up by seven, Washington went on a 14-0 run and had a 52-45 advantage with 14:19 left in regulation.
"At that time, there's a lot of basketball left," sophomore guard Zoom Diallo said in a postgame interview. "The team's gonna go on a run, we're gonna go on a run, but it's about who's gonna stop the bleeding. They were on a seven-point lead in the second half and we couldn't let that seven go to 14. As soon as we started making shots and just capitalizing on missed shots and their mistakes, I felt like it just built momentum for us. ... (The crowd) also got us going."
All four of the players who scored in double-figures for the Huskies, Diallo, freshman forward Hannes Steinback, sophomore forward Bryson Tucker and senior center Franck Kepnang, put up at least a bucket in the 14-0 run.
Diallo had a team-high 22 points on 7-for-14 shooting. He also had two rebounds and three assists.
Steinback had 21 points (9-for-19 shooting), nine rebounds and two steals. Tucker added 12 on a 6-for-11 mark from the field and pulled in five boards, dished two assists and blocked a shot.
Kepnang anchored the offense and defense with an 11-point, seven-rebound, two block performance.
Ohio State wasn't out of the game yet after UW's 14-0 run.
The Buckeyes cut their disadvantage to 60-59 with 7:22 left in the game. A quick 3-pointer from senior guard Quimari Peterson and a subsequent jumper from Tucker bolstered Washington's lead back to double-digits. Ohio State didn't get closer than four points the rest of the game.
The win improved the Huskies' overall record to 10-6 this season, including a 2-3 mark in the Big Ten.
"As a team, we just made a decision to go at it today," Kepnang said in a postgame interview. "We can't change (the losses against Indiana and Purdue). And in the Big Ten, games come around you quick. So, we just made the decision as a team to go out and play hard. As hard as we possibly can."
Washington will next be in action against arguably the best team in the country, the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines, at 7:30 p.m. PT on Jan. 14 at Alaska Airlines Arena in Saettle.
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