The Huskies were unable to pull ahead against the Hoosiers in a Big Ten showdown
The Washington Huskies men's basketball team didn't have the start to the new year they would have wanted.
The Huskies lost a Big Ten showdown 90-80 to the Indiana Hoosiers on Jan. 4 at Bloomington Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind.
The loss dropped Washington's overall record to 9-5 this season and 1-2 in Big Ten play.
It became apparent early in Sunday's game that the Hoosiers and Huskies were gearing up for an offensive showdown. The Dawgs held the early advantage.
A 3-pointer from senior guard Quimari Peterson bolstered Washington's lead to 22-17 with 14 minutes, three seconds left in the first half. Indiana went on a 6-0 run to retake the lead following Peterson's triple.
After the Hoosiers' run, Peterson put up a layup to give the Huskies a 24-23 lead with 11:45 left in the first half. That bucket was the last time Washington had the lead in the game.
Peterson finished the game with 13 points on 4-for-10 shooting (3-for-8 from 3-point range).
After Peterson's aforementioned first-half layup, Indiana put the Huskies in a hole that the visitors spent the rest of the game trying to dig out of.
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The Hoosiers ended the first half on a 29-16 run in the final 11:45 to go into halftime with a 52-40 lead.
Senior guard Tayton Conerway helped fuel Indiana's first-half offense without a single blemish. He scored 18 points in the first 20 minutes on 5-for-5 shooting (4-for-4 from beyond the arc) and went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. He attempted just two shots in the second half and missed one.
Washington still had fight left in the final 20 minutes of the game.
The Huskies opened the second half on a 10-2 run and cut the Hoosiers' lead to 54-50 with 16:04 left in the game.
That run was the closest Washington came to Indiana the rest of the game.
Senior Hoosiers guard Lamar Wilkerson scored 18 of his team-high 22 points in the second half. He connected for a free-throw to complete an and-one play and bolster Indiana's lead to 78-63 with 7:59 left in the game.
The Huskies went on a 9-0 run to cut their deficit to six points before Wilkerson hit a 3-pointer to put the Hoosiers back up by nine.
Wilkerson accounted for nine of Indiana's final 12 points of the game.
After Wilkerson's triple, senior Washington guard Desmond Claude hit a layup to pull the Dawgs back within seven. It was the last field goal of the game for the Huskies.
The Huskies scored six points in the final minute-and-a-half of the contest, all of which came from the charity stripe.
Claude finished the game with 18 points on 5-for-15 shooting; sophomore guard Zoom Diallo had 16 points (6-for-12 from the field), four rebounds and seven assists and freshman forward Hannes Steinbach had a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Washington will next be in action against the No. 5 Purdue Boilermakers at 5:30 p.m. PT on Jan. 7 at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind.
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