Washington Beats Arizona State at Home 77-69

The Huskies came out hot in a much needed win against the Arizona State Sun Devils. Terrence Ross started it off with the first five points and helped the Huskies get an 18 point lead at the half.

However, this was once again a tale of two halves when it came to the Huskies. The first half was impressive; UW was running the floor, setting the pace, and having their way with the Sun Devils. While in the second half UW struggled to hold on to the ball, and they couldn’t penetrate the ASU zone, and allowed the Sun Devils to bring it within 11 points at one point.

Arizona State was hitting big shots, they were finding ways to strip the ball and force turnovers. Lorenzo Romar had to call a timeout and get his team focused again. The Huskies carried about a 15 point lead the remainder of the game until the bench came in and finished off the final minutes. ASU finished the game only down 8, in a game they never should have had a shot at after the start the Huskies had.

Many believe that the Huskies will need to win out the regular season in order to assure a trip to the NCAA tournament. Others say at this point they need to win the Pac-12 tournament. The Huskies play Arizona on Saturday at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Notes and thoughts on the Husky team: 

• Terrence Ross started hot and played with fire through the majority of the game. He helped the Huskies pull away again in the second half with some big three point shots. He finished with 18 points and 5 rebounds.
• Tony Wroten had a record setting game. He recorded six steals in the game and passed Justin Dentmon for the freshman steal record at UW. He had 13 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 turnovers to go along with those 6 steals.
• Aziz N’Diaye went two for three from the free-throw line and helped improved his 35% shooting from the line coming into this game. He had 12 points and 6 rebounds.
• CJ Wilcox had a big game with a bunch of timely and big three point shots. He finished with 14 points, 3 assists, and 2 rebounds.
• Darnell Gant had a highlight dunk and it was probably one of the best dunks of his career. He put back a missed shot from N’Diaye, pulled it out from under the rim and slammed it back in. He had 9 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists.
• Abdul Gaddy shot only twice in the entire game and made one and missed one. He had 3 points, 8 assists, and 3 turnovers.
• Desmond Simmons continues to do what he does best, work hard the entire game. He only had 2 points but picked up 6 rebounds and 1 block.
• Shawn Kemp Jr. continues to improve, game in and game out. Every time he picks up minutes you see the potential just oozing out of him. He played for a good 11 minutes tonight and in that time had 6 points, 1 rebound, and 1 block.
• Hikeem Stewart, Martin Breunig, Austin Seferian-Jenkins, Alex Wegner, and Brenden Sherrer all saw minutes in this game the majority at the end when the win was assured.