The Huskies upset the Wolverines for their first top 10 win in almost two years.
SEATTLE — The Washington Huskies women's basketball team pulled out all the (defensive) stops in a 64-52 win against the No. 6 Michigan Wolverines on Jan. 1 at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.
The win improved the Huskies' overall record to 12-2 this season and 2-1 in the Big Ten.
Michigan entered Thursday's game fifth in the Big Ten in field goal percentage (49.2%) and first in points per game (92.4).
Not only did Washington hold its opponents to 40 points below the average, the Wolverines converted just 33% of their shots (20-for-60) from the floor.
"That's something that we worked on this whole offseason, was just our defense," junior guard Sayvia Sellers said after the game. "We want to be a great defensive team. Obviously, the whole game, we were able to get stops on them. It was obviously a confidence-booster but the communication that we had today on the floor was really what made our confidence go through the roof."
In the first half, both teams struggled together to put together consistent offense.
What offense the Huskies did muster, sophomore guard Avery Howell was at the forefront of it.
The Boise, Idaho, native finished with a 22-point, 16-rebound double-double on 9-for-14 shooting. She also had an assist and two steals.
Howell had 16 points and 10 rebounds at halftime and accounted for more than 50% of her team's offense.
Washington went into half leading Michigan 31-18.
A lot of the offensive responsibilities fell to Howell due to early foul trouble for the Dawgs. Sellers and senior guard Elle Ladine both had two fouls at halftime.
"I think we knew this was gonna be a gritty game and a gritty team win," Howell said after the game. "From the start, everybody knew that. Obviously, there's gonna be things that don't go our way through a long 40-minute game so we had everybody stepping up where we needed to. ... We knew this was not gonna be on one person, this was gonna be a team win."
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In the second half, the Huskies maintained their double-digit advantage against the Wolverines.
Washington took a game-high 20-point lead after a 7-0 run to begin the third but had a stretch of over seven minutes in the period where the team didn't make a field goal attempt.
The defense stood firm, the Huskies made eight free throws during that stretch and senior center Yulia Grabovskaia and sophomore guard Devin Coppinger had respective buckets to end the field goal drought.
Grabovskaia's and Coppinger's scores sent Washington into the final 10 minutes with a 51-33 lead.
The Huskies maintained a double-digit lead for most of the final quarter, but Michigan had one last final surge.
The Wolverines employed a full-court defense in attempts to force turnovers and additional shot opportunities and were successful in that regard.
Michigan scored seven points in 37 seconds and cut its deficit to 57-52 with 1:08 left in the game.
That run comprised the last points of the game for the Wolverines.
Washington ended the game with a 7-0 run, five of those points coming from the free-throw line, to secure the 12-point win and a raucous cheer from the home crowd in Seattle.
It was the first top-10 win for the program since Feb. 25, 2024, against Oregon State.
"Excited about a gritty win," head coach Tina Langley said in a postgame interview. "This team worked incredibly hard preparation-wise. You can prepare all you want, you got to go out there and execute. It's an incredible team that we played today that really plays gritty and tough and I thought our team rose to that challenge. Has really grown in that area a lot."
The Huskies will next be in action against another ranked opponent, No. 24 Michigan State.
Washington will play the Spartans at 6 p.m. PT on Jan. 8 at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.
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