Washington Huskies Unable to Maintain Advantages in Loss to Washington State Cougars

SEATTLE — The Washington Huskies men's basketball team had one more exhibition game on the slate before the regular season begins Nov. 2. And that game came against one of the team's oldest rivals, the Washington State Cougars on Sunday at Alaska Airlines Arena.

This year is the first since 1916 the two sides won't play in the regular season, and the Cougars made sure to earn whatever bragging rights are available from an exhibition and prevailed 84-80 over the Huskies.

"To be honest, I feel like we got a little sloppy with the ball," UW third-year center Lathan Sommerville said in a postgame interview Sunday. "We got a lot more turnovers in the second half and I feel like that's what really got them going, and then second-chance points. We got to just finish plays. Our first-shot defense was pretty good. We just got to finish the play, rebound as a team."

Washington overcame a game-opening run from Washington State to lead early in the first half and went on a run to begin the second half that resulted in a lead, after going into halftime down one.

In both instances, the Huskies were unable to maintain those leads.

Washington lost the rebound battle 40-32 to the Cougars, including a 13-11 disadvantage with offensive rebounds.

Those extra boards benefitted Washington State, which scored 22 second-chance points to 11 for the Huskies.

Turnovers weren's kind to Washington, either. Despite committing just 12 to WSU's 19, 10 of UW's turnovers came in the second half.

"We just didn't rebound it," UW head coach Danny Sprinkle said in a postgame interview. "Gave up 22 second-chance points, or they hit a shot at the end of a shot clock. That stuff, we got to get better at."

The Huskies' biggest lead of the second half came with 13 minutes, 10 seconds remaining in the game. A 3-pointer from fifth-year wing LeJuan Watts and dunk from second-year forward Nikola Dzepina bolstered the home team's lead to 50-43.

The Cougars responded with a 13-2 run to take a 56-52 advantage. Washington tied the game twice after that point, but was unable to retake the lead.

In the final three minutes of the game, the Huskies were able to successfully play the clock and drew a foul on a halfcourt 3-point attempt by Watts with just under two seconds left.

That play gave Watts three shots at the line down four. Watts made the first two and intentionally missed the third as to give UW a chance at a putback and game-tying shot.

Washington State came down with the rebound on the miss on the third attempt from the charity stripe, and knocked down two more free throws after an intentional foul for the eventual final of 84-80.

Watts led the way for UW with a game-high 28 points on 7-for-12 shooting (12-for-13 from the free-throw line) to go with six rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Sommerville put up 19 points on a 6-for-7 clip from the floor (7-for-11 from the charity stripe), had four boards, a block and a steal.

Dzepina had a 16-point, 12-rebound double-double, three assists, a block and a steal.

"I feel much better on the court than last year," Dzepina said after the game. "But doesn't matter. We didn't win the game. My stats or Lathan's stats, really doesn't matter. Only important thing is to win the game." 

Washington will begin its regular season against the Colgate Red Raiders at 7 p.m. PT on Nov. 2 at Alaska Airlines Arena.