SEATTLE —  The Washington Huskies men's basketball team had just nine players available for a game against Southern U on Nov. 18 at Alaska Airlines Arena.

The Huskies were down to seven players by the end of the game after sophomore guard Zoom Diallo and senior center Franck Kepnang both fouled out, but the Dawgs found a way to walk out with a 98-93 double-overtime win against the Jaguars.

It was a physical game for all players involved, including a veteran on Washington's roster who made his season debut.

Senior guard Desmond Claude, who transferred to the Huskies in the offseason from Southern California (USC), suited up for the first time this year on Nov. 18 after missing the first four games of the year with an ankle sprain.

Claude immediately made an impact. He was second on the team with 20 points on 6-for-14 shooting from the floor, was 7-for-8 from the free-throw line, pulled in six rebounds and dished two assists.

"Super impressed," Huskies coach Danny Sprinkle said in a postgame news interview Tuesday. "That's who he is, though. That's why he's a great player. I thought he got us off to a great start, too. I don't know if he scored seven-straight in that first kind of chunk he was in, he hit a 3-pointer, got a layup, he had some big-time post-ups in the second half and even finding guys for shots. And that's what he's done. He's a big guard, he's really hard to keep out of the paint and guard one-on-one. As soon as you run two at him, someone else is getting a shot."

With it being his first game back, Claude entered the game with a minute restriction, but the team's already-thin bench and early foul trouble forced Claude to stay in the game past that.

"I wasn't making eye contact with our trainer tonight," Sprinkle said. "We just had to keep him in the game."

Claude dealt with some struggles his first game back. He described himself as being at an "eight out of ten" based on how he felt before he got hurt, and was in the locker room at various points in the game due to cramps.

Claude only had a couple practices, at most, of full-contact. But he was able to make an impact when the team needed him. In his one game back, he's already proved why he was such an important get for Washington in the transfer portal.

"We have bodies down anyways so it's kind of hard to really have a whole practice like that with full contact," Claude said in a postgame interview Tuesday. "But I'm a hooper, though. I'm a gamer. So, that doesn't really matter to me right now."

Claude and the rest of the Huskies will be next be in action in the Acrisure Holiday Classic against Nevada at 1:30 p.m. PT on Nov. 27 in Palm Desert, Calif.

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