Husky head coach Mike Hopkins is hoping his young Huskies learned a valuable lesson in losing the teams Pac-12 opener to a UCLA Bruins teams that had lost its last three games. In what seems to be a troubling trend the Huskies started the game flatfooted despite scoring the games opening basket. The Huskies were slow to rotate on defense and seal the secondary offensive man off the glass. The Bruins had 15 second-half chances to the Huskie four points.
The lethargicness found the Huskies down 34 to 24 at the break with the visiting Bruins holding a 20-16 rebounding advantage and committing just five turnovers to the Huskies 11. The Bruins were also 4-10 from the 3pt range.
SECOND HALF EFFORT
Washington started the second half on a 17-4 run carried mostly by Quade Green and Isaiah Stewart who led the Huskies with 24 points. Green’s layup pulled Washington within 38-37 and Jamal Bey immediately stole the inbound pass and scored to give the Huskies a 39-38 lead, their first since 10-9. The Huskies effort was fleeting as the teams had 15 lead changes. The Huskies were unable to generate any type of offensive rhythm down the stretch with Jayden McDaniels having fouled out four minutes into the game. One of McDaniels’s foul was a bench technical foul for throwing the ball at referee was he making an out of bounds call. Another example showing the Huskies’ lack of focus.
GUARDING THE THREE POINTER
The most surprising breakdown by the Huskies on Thursday night was the inability to guard the three-pointer. The Bruins Jake Kyman hit seven 3-pointers and scored a career-high 21 points off the bench, the last coming with eight seconds left to give UCLA the 66-64 win. The Bruins made 10 of 26 three-pointers to finish the game with a 38.5 % shooting percentage. No doubt the head-scratcher here is the Huskies’ inability to shut down Kyman early and late in the game.
