Washington Basketball Clinches A Share Of Pac-12 Title

Washington basketball beat the Colorado Buffaloes Saturday night 64-55 with four games remaining on the Pac-12 schedule. The Huskies have a four-game lead on the rest of the conference.

Washington basketball started to pull away from Colorado with around five minutes to go in the first half on Saturday night.

The Huskies were energized by a home crowd at Alaska Airlines Arena of over ten thousand. The biggest scene happened in the first half when Matisse Thybulle stole a pass that put him into second place all-time in the Pac-12 Conference behind Hall of Famer Gary Payton.

Thybulle now has 300 steals in his career, and passed Brevin Knight on Saturday. Payton had 321 steals for Oregon State, and with four conference games left plus the Pac-12 tournament, Thybulle can end his career as the conference’s all-time steal leader.

Thybulle also led the Huskies in scoring, with 17 points on 7/13 shooting, including 2/4 from behind the arc. He had six steals and five blocked shots on the night.  Jaylen Nowell, who has bee the Huskies’ leading scorer on the season had 12 points. David Crisp also contributed 10 points, and he’s been in double figures in every conference game save for one, the game at Washington State.

Sophomore guard Tyler Bey kept the game close for the Buffaloes. He led Colorado with 20 points, going 9/17 from the floor.

D’Shawn Schwartz was Colorado’s only other scorer in double digits, with 10. The Huskies were able to limit the team’s leading scorer, McKinley Wright IV to four points on the night, well below his average of 13.2 a game.

Colorado was able to cut the score down to 59-50, but the Huskies pulled away at the end for a 64-55 victory.

The Huskies are now 13-1 in conference play with an overall record of 22-5. They are undefeated at home with a record of 14-0.

The Dawgs are hitting the road to travel to Cal and Stanford this weekend. The Huskies start with Cal this Thursday, who haven’t won a game in conference play.