For the first time this season, the Washington Huskies men's basketball team entered a game with senior center Franck Kepnang unavailable.

The Huskies were able to hold the line in the big man's stead and beat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 79-72 on Tuesday at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, N.J.

Washington improved to 14-14 overall this season and 6-11 in Big Ten competition.

Even without Kepnang, the Huskies were still able to find an advantage on the boards. Washington out-rebounded Rutgers 34-29.

Sixteen of those boards came from freshman forward Hannes Steinbach, who finished the game with 24 points on 9-for-13 shooting. He added three blocks, an assist and a steal to his double-double.

Steinbach scored 10 of his points in the first half, which helped the Dawgs create a lead the Scarlet Knights couldn't completely work themselves back from.

Washington held a narrow 11-9 advantage over Rutgers with 16 minutes, 12 seconds left in the first half. After that point, UW went on a 10-0 run to put the Knights behind by 12.

The Huskies led by as much as 14 points in the first 20 minutes. The Scarlet Knights mustered a 7-0 run to close out the half, but still went into the break trailing 36-29.

Rutgers was able to keep Washington's lead to single-digits for the opening stages of the second half, but the Huskies responded with an 8-0 run to bolster their lead to 53-40 with 11:56 left in the game.

With 9:17 left in the game, Washington had increased its lead to 63-45. The Scarlet Knights had respective unanswered runs of 8-0 and 9-0, respectively, and the Huskies didn't have a run of more than four unanswered points the rest of the half.

Rutgers was able to get as close as five points within Washington but was unable to make the final push and UW held on for the seven-point win.

Three other Huskies scored in double-digits against the Scarlet Knights. Yates scored 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting and added three rebounds, six assists and a steal.

Sophomore guard Zoom Diallo scored 10 points, brought in seven rebounds and dished two assists.

Senior guard Quimari Peterson scored 10 points on a 2-for-3 mark from 3-point range and a 4-for-4 mark from the free-throw line. He dished three assists, pulled in two rebounds and swiped two steals.

Washington will return home for a game against Wisconsin at 1 p.m. PT on Feb. 28 at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.

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