The Washington Huskies ( 13-5 overall, 3-2 Pac-12) growing pains continue. The Stanford Cardinal ( 10-8,4-1) snapped the Huskies two-game Pac -12 Conference win streak with a steady, calm and calculated 70 to 62 win Saturday night at Alaska Airlines Arena.
The first lesson of the Huskies is to be ready to play at tip-off. Stanford scored the first five points of the game and built a quick 15-5 lead. While the Huskies overcame that deficit they always seemed to be one step behind the Cardinal all night. The Huskies led three times to in the first half but ended going into the halftime break down two points at 35 to 33.
The Second lesson for the Huskies is that you have to play a complete game on both ends of the court. In the second half, the Huskies played decent defense, the twelve blocked shots and eighteen turnovers by Stanford can attest to that, but when they were playing decent defense they struggled on the offensive end, the 33% field goal shooting percentage is exhibit A.
Exhibit B is the Huskies getting outrebounded 14 to 3 on the offensive boards. In the second half, the Huskies had two-second chance points compared to Stanford’s 13. At one point in the second half, the Huskies played 4:49 seconds without scoring a field goal.
Despite their offensive struggles, the Huskies were down just two points at 60 to 62 with 3:53 left in the game. Freshman and former Garfield High School player Daejon Davis drilled a three-pointer to give the Cardinal a five-point lead it never relinquished. Davis finished with 16 points and ten rebounds to record his first double-double of his young career.
It was Stanford’s first Pac -12 road sweep since sweeping the Oregon Schools in 2012. It was also Stanford’s fourth consecutive conference win. After losing 77-74 to call, Stanford collected wins over UCLA 107 to 99 ( 2OT), USC 77-76, WSU 79 -70 and now the Huskies.
For the Huskies, the loss will serve as another lesson in maturity. The effort can be there but when and where its applied is just as important.
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