The Washington Huskies men's basketball team entered Saturday in must-win mode. And they played like it against the Northwestern Wildcats.

The Huskies beat the Wildcats 76-62 on Saturday at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill.

Washington had three players score 20-plus points in the victory: sophomore guard Zoom Diallo (22 points), freshman forward Hannes Steinbach (22) and sophomore guard Wesley Yates III (21 points).

Yates put up his 21 on a 7-for-13 mark from the floor, including a 5-for-8 clip from 3-point range. He also added two rebounds, three assists, a block and three steals.

Yates' five triples were a single-game career-high.

"It's tough coming back from injuries. Any injury is always tough," Yates said after the game in an interview with Big Ten Network. " ... Mentally it's tough more than physically. Just knowing that you're not gonna get it all back in one day. And that's really just my mindset, knowing I'm not gonna get it back in one day but just everyday just trying to get 1% better."

The Huskies improved to 12-10 on the season and 4-7 in Big Ten play with the victory.

Washington and Northwestern spent the first 14 minutes of the first half going back-and-forth with each other. With six minutes, 46 seconds left in the first half, the Dawgs held a narrow 21-20 advantage.

The Huskies went on a 6-0 run to take a 27-20 lead and the Wildcats weren't able to get closer than four points the rest of the first half.

Yates scored eight straight points from 2:23 to 1:13 left in the first half to help send Washington into halftime with a 39-27 lead.

Yates scored 15 of his 21 points in the first half.

In the second half, Diallo and Steinbach took the reins on the scoring side of things. 

Diallo put up 15 of his 22 points in the second half and Steinbach scored 14 of his 22, respectively.

Steinbach also added 14 rebounds, two assists and a steal. It was his 14th double-double of the season, which tied the program record for most by a freshman in a single year. Isaiah Stewart set the record in 2019-20.

Diablo added six rebounds and six assists.

Northwestern went on a 7-0 run from 11:05 to 9:27 in the second half and cut its deficit to eight points. The Wildcats weren't able to get closer than that the rest of the game.

The Huskies will return home for a game against the Iowa Hawkeyes at 8 p.m. PT on Feb. 4 at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.

Remember to join our HUSKIES on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Washington fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!