Brown Jr. scores 25, Matthews Jr. 15 as Huskies rally for win over WSU
The Washington Huskies have some needed momentum as the Pac-12 Tournament rapidly approaches.
Saturday afternoon, two days after dropping the first meeting of the season against their in-state rivals in Pullman, the Huskies rallied for a 78-70 win over Washington State at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
“I’ve played in a bunch of rivalry games before against a bunch of different rivals, but this one’s different,” Huskies forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. said. “This one’s home. … Just going out there and competing today with my brothers and winning that game, I know how much it meant to everybody on our team, staff, the fans.”
The win snapped what was a four-game losing streak for UW — which included a run of defeats against three consecutive ranked opponents in Arizona, USC and UCLA before the loss Wednesday night to WSU — heading into the final week of the regular season.
“I felt like that was a great college basketball game in a rivalry game, and to come out with a victory, that boosts you,” UW coach Mike Hopkins said.
The visiting Cougars (15-13, 8-9 Pac-12) controlled the lead through much of the first 25 minutes, but once the Huskies (14-13, 9-8) — and more specifically Terrell Brown Jr. — found a rhythm in the second half, there wasn’t much disrupting it.
After shooting just 1-of-9 from the floor in the first half, and entering the break with four points, Brown was quick to regroup, finishing 7-of-12 in the second half and sinking 7-of-9 free throw attempts.
He scored 21 of his team-leading 25 points in the closing half, and gave UW a lead it never lost with 15:15 to go, when he hit a contested jumper in the paint, drew a foul, and made the free throw that followed to make it 37-36.
“We believe he’s the best player in the league,” Hopkins said. “We knew he wasn’t going to go 1-for-9 again. We felt like we had to open up the court, and we started playing a little bit small, we started driving them, we got into the bonus, and he delivers. That’s what he does.”
UW stretched its lead as high as nine points on a pair of Jamal Bey free throws with 2:41 left, but WSU nearly closed the gap.
The Cougars hit a trio of 3-pointers — one each from O’Dea High School product Noah Williams, Michael Flowers and Tyrell Roberts — in the final 2:17 to help cut the Huskies’ lead to as few as three points twice.
TJ Bamba’s two free throws cut the lead to one possession a final time with 37.5 seconds left, but what happened next ended any threat of a late Cougars comeback.
Matthews, returning from missing one game with a concussion, got behind WSU’s defense with 28 seconds remaining, and threw down a one-handed slam to give the Huskies a five-point edge as the crowd erupted.
The Huskies added three more free throws in the final 11 seconds for their final eight-point advantage.
Matthews finished with 15 points for the Huskies in his first game back, while UW also returned guard Daejon Davis after a five-game absence with a shoulder injury. Davis added nine points, seven rebounds and a team-high five assists and three steals.
“These guys care about each other, they’re competitors, they want to help us win, and showed a lot of heart tonight,” Hopkins said. “A lot of heart.”
Bey also reached double figures for UW with 10 points, while Nate Roberts had nine.
Flowers led all scorers with 30, boosted by a stellar first half, while Mouhamed Gueye added 10 for WSU, and for a while, it seemed the Cougars might sweep the season series.
The Huskies grabbed an early lead twice in the first three minutes, but WSU never trailed after Flowers hit one of his five first half 3-pointers at the 16:45 mark.
UW tied it twice after that, but the Cougars retook the lead for the final nine minutes of the half when Flowers connected again from the corner, answering Bey’s 3-pointer only moments earlier, to make it 20-17.
Flowers drained yet another 3-pointer not long after, and made his first six attempts from the floor — including the five shots from the perimeter — before he missed, and finished the half shooting 6-of-8 and 5-of-7 from 3-point range. His 20 points paced the Cougars to their 34-28 lead by the break.
UW rallied to finish 26-of-54 (48.1 percent) from the floor, while WSU shot 24-of-70 (34.3).
“They realized that they didn’t do what we needed to do in the first half, but galvanized together, were really gritty, and we played I thought, really, really tough in the second half, and that’s why we won,” Hopkins said.
UW hosts UCLA on Monday night — making up what would have been the Huskies’ Pac-12 home opener, which was postponed in December — before the Oregon schools visit at the end of the week to close the regular season.
This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 5:29 PM.
