Washington Huskies Take Down Mississippi Valley State With Barrage of 3-Pointers

SEATTLE — The Washington Huskies men's basketball team relied on a historic night from beyond the arc en route to a 77-64 win against the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils on Monday at Alaska Airlines Arena.

The Huskies attempted a program-record 50 shots from 3-point range and made 17 in the win, which tied a program record.

UW improved to 2-0 with the victory.

"I like the 3s we were getting," UW head coach Danny Sprinkle said in a postgame news conference Monday at Alaska Airlines Arena. "I know it's going to crazy, but we need to make more of them. When we're that wide open — I thought we had probably four or five (shots) that were just kind of in-and-out, too, when we were in rhythm. But I like the quality of shots we were getting. We let the ball find the open man."

Washington was unable to find much else beyond aside from the triple in the first half. Mississippi Valley, despite having only nine players available and being at a size disadvantage, was able to successfully employ traps whenever the Huskies passed into the post.

"They were switching one-through-five, so we would sometimes get smalls down there on bigs like (Lathan Sommerville), (Nikola Dzepina)," Fourth-year guard Ryan Beasley said after the game. "We have good passing bigs. We knew when we threw it down there, the low man was heavy help, so we were able to skip out and make extra passes, shoot open 3s. So I think playing out the post was big time for us tonight."

Rather than force the issue, the bigs got involved in the passing game and were able to help facilitate the open looks that the team had in the first half.

Despite the high-octane offense from beyond the arc, the Delta Devils were able to keep up for most of the first half.

Mississippi Valley held an 8-3 lead with 18 minutes, 44 seconds left in the first half. Washington responded with a 9-0 run to take the lead and the closest the visitors came the rest of the way after that point in the first half was a 15-14 deficit with 15:08 left.

The Huskies went into halftime with a 43-33 lead and went the rest of the game with the advantage. With Washington's consistent presence from 3-point range, the interior opened up, which left the Delta Devils unable to find a response.

UW outrebounded the visitors 46-25 and had extra scoring opportunities with a 16-6 offensive rebound advantage.

The Huskies led by as much as 18 points in the second half and the closest Mississippi Valley came to bridging the gap was a four-point deficit.

Beasley helped facilitate Washington's program-best night. He scored 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting (4-for-9 from beyond the arc) and had 10 rebounds, six assists and a steal. It was his first career double-double.

Eighth-year wing Steele Venters and fourth-year guard Parker Friedrichsen joined Beasley in double figures. Venters had 15 points on a 5-for-13 clip from 3-point range in addition to two rebounds and one steal. Friedrichsen had a team-high 17 points on a 6-for-13 mark from the floor (5-for-11 from 3-point range) and two rebounds.

The Huskies will next be in action against the Utah Utes at 4 p.m. PT on Saturday at the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.