The Washington Huskies (16-6, 6-3 Pac-12) played some good old fashioned hard-nosed defense in holding the Arizona State Sun Devils (16-6, 4-6) to a season-low 64 points in their 68 to 64 point win over the Sun Devils Thursday Night at Alaska Airlines Arena
The way the Husky scored the first two points of the game was an omen to how the game would go. Matisse Thybulle stole the ball, passed it to David Crisp who found an open Noah Dickerson for the two-point lead.
The play was telling in that Thybulle finished the game with nine points, one assist and six steals. Thybulle set the school record for most steals in a season with 70. Noah Dickerson celebrated his 21st birthday with his fifth career double-double. Dickerson scored 21 points and hauled in 16 rebounds. While Crisp had just 12 points half of those points came in the last four minutes when the Husky offense was stagnant.
The win over the Sun Devils is a signature win not only of who it was against but how it was done. The Huskies went into the halftime break with a 37-27 lead after stifling the Sun Devils high powered offense. The Sun Devils shot just 38.55 from the field after making 10 of their 26 shot attempts. The Sun Devils came into the game ranked no.10 in scoring
The Sun Devils found their shooting touch and tied the game at 39-all with 10-2 run to start the second half. From that point on till the final whistle, the game became a chippy rough and aggressive affair with neither team willing to back down.
The Sun Devils took their first lead of the contest on a Kodi Justice three point jumper at 50-51 with 7:28 left in the game but it was short-lived as Dickerson gave the lead back to the home side 30 seconds later with a short jumper just inside the paint.
Dickerson broke a 58-58 tie with back to back free throws at the 3:02 mark and the Huskies held on for the win.
Up next for the Huskies will be a Saturday night home clash against No.9 ranked Arizona.
3 Replies to “Huskies down Sun Devils 68 to 64 in tough defensive battle”