Isaiah Stewart dominates, but Huskies fall to No. 8 Oregon 64-61 in overtime
Isaiah Stewart was going to will Washington to victory. At least that’s how it seemed to Mike Hopkins, who was standing on the sideline watching Stewart put together the most impressive game of his already remarkable freshman season.
Stewart did everything that was asked of him — and then he did more. He dominated the paint, finishing with a double-double of 25 points and 19 rebounds. He had five blocks, two assists and two steals. He drew 13 fouls.
It seemed plausible that Stewart could simply put the Huskies (12-7, 2-4 Pac-12) on his shoulders and carry them to a victory over Oregon (15-4, 4-2). But despite his herculean effort, UW fell just short. After leading by 12 points at halftime, the Huskies lost to the Ducks 64-61 in overtime after a game-winning three-pointer from Payton Pritchard.
Afterward, Hopkins had plenty to critique: The second-half drop-off, the missed free throws, the trouble breaking Oregon’s press. But Stewart’s performance? That was beyond reproach.
“That’s a man and a professional in all elements of his life, how he handles everything,” Hopkins said, then released a long breath. “I wish we could’ve gotten that one for him today.”
Instead, the Huskies crumbled in the second half of what would have been a resume-boosting victory.
In the first half, UW shot 41.9 percent (13-of-31) from the field and 38.5 percent (5-of-13) from the 3-point line. Freshman point guard Marcus Tsohonis carried over his strong performance against Oregon State by finishing the first half with 12 points and two assists off the bench. Paced by his effort, the Huskies led 37-25 at the the break.
But then UW shot 5-of-26 from the field, 0-for-11 from three and 14-of-23 from the foul line in the second half and overtime combined. And after committing just three turnovers in the first half, the Huskies turned the ball over 10 more times after the break.
“Honestly, that’s on me, kind of,” said Tsohonis, who had two points and four turnovers in the second half and overtime. “I wasn’t getting people in their right positions. People weren’t in the right positions. We were feeling chaotic. We were shooting bad shots at the end of the clock. I kind of put that on me on being the point guard on the floor and not getting everybody in their positions.”
Sitting beside him at the post-game press conference, Stewart offered Tsohonis a soft correction — “It’s not all on you, bro” — before he started speaking.
“It’s on all of us,” Stewart said. “We were running the same two plays the whole game and coach kept calling them out. All of the sudden, we don’t know how to run the play. We were running the same two plays the whole game. It was all of us. We started to mess up on offense. We didn’t convert, had some turnovers, missed some shots. “
UW had a 16-point advantage — its largest of the game — with 13:50 left in the second half. But Oregon used a 15-2 run to trim UW’s lead to 50-47 with 4:26 left. Hopkins called a timeout, and the Huskies got the ball to Stewart inside. He went up in traffic, making the basket and drawing the foul. After the ensuing free throw, UW led 53-47 with 3:44 remaining.
But the Ducks didn’t fade, and they eventually tied the game at 54 on a Pritchard three from near midcourt with 1:08 left. UW reclaimed the lead on two free throws from Stewart before before Oregon’s Shakur Juiston tied the game at 56 on a layup with 17 seconds left.
UW got the final possession of regulation, with Tsohonis finding Jamal Bey for a three-point attempt at the buzzer. But the ball bounce off the back rim, sending the game to overtime.
“I don’t like to call timeouts in certain situations because I don’t want them to set up their defense,” Hopkins said. “I think I called something to get to the basket and sometimes they take that away.”
Stewart gave the Huskies the first lead in overtime, but missed a free throw that could have completed a three-point play. After Oregon’s Chandler Lawson and UW’s Nahziah Carter each went 1-for-2 from the foul line, the Huskies led 59-57 with 2:27 left.
Lawson and Pritchard then hit back-to-back jumpers to give Oregon a 61-59 advantage. After Stewart hit two more foul shots to tie the game at 61, Oregon got the ball back with 49 seconds left.
Enter Pritchard.
Again.
He missed his first three-point attempt, but the Ducks secured the offensive rebound — one of the 19 they finished with — to give him another chance. And Pritchard? He wasn’t about to miss twice.
Bey played tight defense as Pritchard dribbled and even stumbled at the top of the key. But then he stepped backward — close to where he hit the game-tying shot from in overtime — and drained the game-winner with 3 seconds left. Pritchard finished with 22 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the field, including 6-of-12 from three.
Hopkins subbed in freshman sharp-shooter RaeQuan Battle for the final shot, but he didn’t hit the rim on a deep three-pointer at the buzzer.
“You have to extend and we didn’t execute that,” Hopkins said. “A guy like that, who means so much to the team, (Pritchard’s) the head of the snake. You got to make sure he can’t even see the basket. You got to force somebody else to beat you. He’s an exceptional player. He was the number one thing on the scouting report and we didn’t defend it too well.”
Said Tsohonis: “There’s definitely other things that we could have done better. We weren’t even supposed to be in that position for him to make that shot. Jamal had a good defensive play there. It’s a tough shot from a good player. “
Hopkins shouldered some of the blame for the second-half struggles. After not playing since November, Tsohonis played 6 minutes against Cal, 29 against Oregon State and then 36 against Oregon. Four Huskies played more than 30 minutes while Hopkins — with the exception of Tsohonis — rarely went to his bench. Battle played 12 minutes while Nate Roberts and Sam Timmins played 5 minutes and 1 minute, respectively.
Because of that, Hopkins said UW appeared fatigued in the second half and overtime.
“Our offense got a little stale,” Hopkins said. “We got tired and stopped our movement. I thought that really hurt us. But with all that being said, we missed a couple foul shots that could’ve closed the game. Sometimes that happens in the game of basketball.”
UW has now lost six games this season by a combined 38 points, an average of 5.4 points per game. Other than the 13-point defeat to Tennessee, the Huskies have lost every game by single digits. Four losses have been by three points or less.
Closing out games might be the biggest obstacle standing between the Huskies and the NCAA Tournament. And this week, they’ll have to do it on the road against Utah on Thursday and No. 20 Colorado on Sunday.
“A lot of season left,” Hopkins said. “A lot of really good teams. We’re close. We show so many great signs. We just got to get over the hump. … You got a lot of youth out there, a lot of young guys.”
This story was originally published January 18, 2020 at 4:09 PM.
