3 takeaways from the Huskies’ win over Northern Arizona
The Washington Huskies are in the win column.
Two nights after they dropped their season-opener to Northern Illinois, the Huskies (1-1) regrouped with a 73-62 win over Northern Arizona (0-2) at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
“I think the big thing about practices like yesterday is you flush the loss and you come in and you get ready to win,” Huskies forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. said. “So, you come in with a new mindset. Everybody came in hungry and I think we’re just going to continue to build off tonight.”
Here are three takeaways from the win:
1. UW didn’t have an ideal night offensively, but did show improvement from its season-opener
Tuesday night, the Huskies were 20-of-75 (26.7 percent) from the floor, 3-of-18 (16.7) from 3-point range and 21-of-36 (58.3) from the free throw line.
That resulted in a season-opening 71-64 loss to Northern Illinois.
Thursday night’s offensive production still wasn’t ideal — but it was better, and enough to secure a win.
“The hardest win is the first win of the year as we figured out two days ago, but just proud of these guys,” Huskies coach Mike Hopkins said. “We’re going to learn a lot moving forward, and I love these guys and I think the potential is limitless and we’ll see how far we can go.”
The Huskies finished 22-of-60 (36.7) from the floor, 5-of-13 (38.5) from 3-point range and 24-of-35 (68.6) from the free throw line.
All improvements from Tuesday’s loss.
The Huskies took the game’s final lead with more than 12 minutes remaining on a Nate Roberts free throw, but NAU remained within reach until late in the second half.
UW went on a 14-7 run in the final 5:47 — sparked by a Matthews 3-pointer as the shot clock wound down — to pull away.
The Huskies took a double-digit lead for good with 1:36 remaining on a spinning layup by Arizona transfer Terrell Brown Jr., and TCU transfer P.J. Fuller ignited the crowd with less than a minute remaining with UW’s seventh block of the game.
“I just feel like it was really the icing on the cake on the win,” Fuller said. “I felt like we needed that, so I just went up and got it.”
2. Four Huskies — including three newcomers — reached double figures scoring
Tacoma’s Matthews led the way offensively with 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting, and added nine rebounds.
“It was fun watching him be so efficient and aggressive on the offensive end,” Hopkins said.
Jamal Bey added 15 points, four rebounds and two steals.
Brown scored 11 — reaching double figures for the second consecutive game after leading UW with 22 against NIU — and had four rebounds and a pair of steals.
Daejon Davis had 10 points, five rebounds, two steals and two assists.
Matthews (formerly at West Virginia), Brown (Arizona, Seattle U) and Davis (Stanford) all returned to Seattle to join the Huskies ahead of this season.
3. The Huskies got valuable contributions from their bench
What was Hopkins pleased with in the win over NAU?
“I was most happy with our bench,” he said. “I thought Jackson Grant came in and gave us some really good minutes after … he got a little loose. And I thought P.J. Fuller, I thought he really changed the game.
“We have the type of team it’s going to be a new guy, it could be a different guy every night.”
Eight of the 10 players that appeared for the Huskies scored, and they got 12 points from three players bench.
Grant, an Olympia High School product, scored the first points of his career in the first half and finished with seven, while adding four rebounds in 13 minutes.
Fuller added four points, three steals and two blocks in his 19 minutes.
Cole Bajema (two rebounds in 16 minutes), Langston Wilson (six minutes) and freshman Samuel Ariyibi (block, steal in two minutes) were also in the rotation Tuesday.
“When you can get production off the bench — especially on the defensive end — that’s always a plus,” Hopkins said. “Especially when you have to play two games in three days.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2021 at 11:08 PM.
