SEATTLE — With one second left in a five-minute overtime Tuesday at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle, Washington Huskies senior guard Quimari Peterson drove the ball to the left side of the basket and laid it in to tie a game against the Southern University Jaguars 86-86. It made up for an earlier miss from Peterson on a put-back to end regulation.

"(Peterson) scored five straight points," Huskies coach Danny Sprinkle said in a postgame interview Tuesday. " ... That's just what he does. That's why he was, analytically, one of the highest-rated guards in the country last year. The last 10 seconds of the clock. He made a tremendous play."

Peterson's shot ultimately sent the game to double-overtime, where the shorthanded Washington men's team put away the competitive Southern U squad 98-93.

The win improved Washington's record to 4-1 on the season (3-0 at home).

The Huskies had only nine players on the bench for Tuesday's game and it nearly was the team's undoing.

Senior guard Desmond Claude made his season debut after missing the first four games of the season with an ankle sprain. Freshman forward Hannes Steinbach, who registered three straight double-doubles for Washington before Tuesday, was out with his own respective ankle sprain.

Washington was unable to get a handle on the Jaguars' tough defense for the first half of the game and several players found themselves in foul trouble.

The Huskies went into halftime trailing 37-29. They shot 36% from the floor compared to 48.4% for Southern U. Washington had more attempts at the free-throw line (10 vs. five) but had three players with two fouls. 

"I feel like it's more a discipline thing and a mindset thing more than anything they did," Sophomore guard Wesley Yates III said in a postgame news scrum Tuesday.

Yates finished the game with a team-high 23 points and added six rebounds, an assist and three steals. He shot 6-for-14 from the field and 9-for-14 from the free-throw line.

Claude, in his first game back, led the Huskies in the first half with seven points on 2-for-3 shooting (2-for-2 from the free-throw line). His first make of the season was a 3-pointer.

Claude finished the game with 20 points, six rebounds and two assists.

In the second half, the Huskies were playing catchup for most of it and every time they made a push, Southern U kept the home team at a distance.

Washington already had a thin bench that got one man lighter after sophomore guard Zoom Diallo fouled out with 7:02 left in regulation.

In the second half, the Huskies finally pulled even with 5:39 left in the game. Senior center Franck Kepnang hit a layup to tie the game 59-59. Kepnang ultimately fouled out of the game, as well, with just under two minutes left in the second overtime period, but provided a spark in the second half that got Washington back in the game.

Kepnang helped captain an unplanned defensive switch for the Huskies, which the team had barely practiced before Tuesday.

"We went to our 1-3-1 defense," Sprinkle said. "Which, to be honest, we practiced for about three minutes. We walked through it the other day. I wasn't planning on using it tonight. I just wanted to show our guys. But we couldn't stop them and we were getting in foul trouble so we had to go to it. We probably got five or six-straight stops, which kind of changed the momentum of the game. And Franck was a big part of that. Franck and (JJ Mandaquit) down on that back line, walling up and making their guard who was getting downhill scoring over them, was tremendous. And that kind of sparked us."

Kepnang finished the game with six points on 3-for-6 shooting, had 12 boards, three steals and blocked six shots.

Washington was able to keep even with its opponents and tied the game 69-69 going into the end of regulation.

In the first overtime period, the Jaguars led 85-81 with 15 seconds left in the game. Peterson was fouled attempting a 3-pointer and made all three shots before hitting the game-tying layup.

The Huskies didn't leave anything to chance in the second overtime and scored the first two baskets to take a four-point lead Southern U couldn't make up en route to the 98-93 victory.

"(The message was) just stay connected, stay together," Claude said Tuesday. "We put ourselves in that position to be down. But we all believed and we all knew we wasn't gonna lose that game no matter what. It was sort of like a positive message and going over things we had to fix. Whether that was foul, rebounding and just making the right plays and taking care of the ball."

Washington will have a much-earned (and needed) break before taking part in the Acrisure Holiday Classic.

The Huskies will play Nevada at 1:30 p.m. PT on Nov. 27 in Palm Desert, Calif.

RELATED HUSKIES STORIES

SAYVIA SELLERS NAMED BIG TEN PLAYER OF THE WEEK: The junior guard earned her first weekly honor of the season after a dominant week for the Washington Huskies against Montana and Utah. CLICK HERE

WASHINGTON COACH JEDD FISCH GIVES POSITIVE UPDATES ON INJURED PLAYERS: Fisch had positive updates for running back Jonah Coleman and wide receivers Denzel Boston and Raiden Vines-Bright. CLICK HERE

JEDD FISCH COMPLIMENTS BACKUP RUNNING BACK ADAM MOHAMMED: The sophomore running back filled in admirably for the Huskies in their blowout win against Purdue. CLICK HERE

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

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!