By Andrew Bailie Posted on

Washington honors Welp, as Huskies beat Buckeyes 81-74

The Washington Huskies (9-6, 1-3 in conference) battled the Ohio State Buckeyes (11-3, 3-2 in conference) at Alaska Airlines Arena. Sunday’s game was not a must-win, but given Washington’s recent struggles, the game felt like one. On the road at Indiana and Purdue, the Huskies were unable to climb out of big double-digit deficits. Washington was battered defensively, giving up 90 points to the Hoosiers and 81 points to the Boilermakers. Following two consecutive conference losses, Washington needed to play with more energy against Ohio State. To beat the Buckeyes, the Huskies played with more intensity on defense, had better team offense, and relied on big nights from Hannes Steinbach and Zoom Diallo.

Washington stays with Ohio State in a tightly contested first half

Recently, the Huskies have struggled early in games. They trailed by 12 points at the half against Indiana and by 17 at Purdue. Once again, Washington found itself playing from behind against Ohio State in the first half. However, in this game, the Huskies kept the score close. F Hannes Steinbach and G Zoom Diallo led Washington with a combined 22 points (Steinbach had 14 and Diallo had 8). The Huskies were also able to find offense from unexpected places as G Courtland Muldrew and F Nikola Dzepina each hit a three-point shot:

“When you’re playing with the right effort, you just get rewarded. And we did tonight, and really proud of them. You know, Courtland and Nikola, making some big threes. You know, it was the true freshman in that first half, you know, to keep us in a manageable distance, you know, and that’s, that’s what it takes”, said Sprinkle.

The Huskies needed everyone to chip in, with top scorers Desmond Claude and Wesley Yates both out. Claude was out for tonight’s game because of a team decision to sit him after he missed yesterday’s practice because of a personal matter. Yates practiced yesterday and is nearing a return from surgery on a broken wrist, but was unable to go. Fortunately, Muldrew and Dzepina’s threes helped Washington keep pace with Ohio State from beyond the arc as each team went 4/10 from three. Despite trailing for most of the first half, the Huskies were down just 38-36 at halftime.

Huskies honor late legendary player Christian Welp at halftime

Christian Welp, Washington’s all-time leading scorer with 2073 total points, was honored during halftime. The Husky Legend passed away back in 2015 from a heart attack. His family came to Alaska Airlines Arena on Sunday to see his jersey retired. Welp’s daughter Ally Grill spoke about the honor of seeing her father’s jersey hung to the rafters and how she wants him to be remembered:

“I think in terms of, you know, being a basketball player and being a teammate, he’s the example. He played the game the right way. He was loyal, he was fair. He put in the work that needed to be done to make sure that he played how he should play, and you know, being able to be relied on by his teammates. So really, the only word that comes to mind is, I hope players now and future players that they look up, the number 40, they look at his records, they watch his past film, they talk to previous teammates, and just, he’s the example of what a teammate and player should be”, said Ally Grill.

The Huskies later unveiled Welp’s no. 40 jersey, which now hangs in the rafters of Alaska Airlines Arena. Welp’s family received a rousing applause as fans showed their appreciation at the end of the ceremony. When play resumed in the second half, the current Husky team made sure to honor Welp and gave fans more to cheer about.

Washington’s defensive intensity picks up in the second half to help the Huskies pull ahead

In the second half, Washington fell behind 45-38 early on. The Buckeyes had a chance to pull away, but the Huskies made sure that would not happen. Over the next 3:38, Washington went on a 14-0 run. Hannes Steinbach started the run with a three-point play off a layup and a made free throw. Then he stole the ball on defense, and Bryson Tucker made a layup on the fast break. Following another defensive stop, the Huskies went back on offense, as Tucker made a nice pass to Quimari Peterson, who hit a go-ahead three. The Husky defense then made two more stops, and Zoom Diallo scored a pair of two-point shots to put Washington up 50-45. Danny Sprinkle spoke about his team’s big run after the game:

“Yeah, I mean, it completely changed the game. We finally started getting some stops. We got a couple of those loose balls and those long rebounds. Like, it seemed there was probably 10 where they would shoot a shot and the thing would just bounce off like 15 feet, you know, always in that top of the key area. And it seemed they probably got 90% of them, even in the second half. But during that run, like, we were, we were flying around. You know, we were making it tough. We were making them shoot over us and we were getting rebounds”, said Sprinkle.

The Huskies never looked back after taking the lead on that 14-0 run five minutes into the second half. After allowing the Buckeyes to shoot 48% in the first half, Washington held Ohio State to 37.5% from the field in the final 20 minutes of the game. The Huskies continued to ride their defense, then eventually closed out the game with clutch free-throw shooting down the stretch. F Franck Kepnang came down with a big offensive rebound with 1:00 left, with Washington up six, and was fouled. Kepang went to the free-throw line and sank both free throws to give the Huskies an insurmountable 77-69 lead. Diallo and Quimari Peterson later added two more free throws each after Buckeye makes to close out the game, as Washington beat Ohio State 81-74.

Washington’s Zoom Diallo and Hannes Steinbach lead a complete team win

Zoom Diallo led the Huskies with 22 points, with 14 of them coming in the second half. Hannes Steinbach also had 21 points and was one rebound shy of another double-double. Two other Huskies finished in double figures, with Bryson Tucker scoring 12 and Franck Kepnang finishing with 11. Each player who played for Washington scored a point tonight. The Huskies also had 14 assists to just seven turnovers, shot 19/23 (82.6%) from the free-throw line, and had 40 points in the paint.

What’s next for the Huskies

Washington earned its second win in conference play after defeating Ohio State to kick off a three-game homestand. The Huskies are now (10-6 overall and 2-3 in conference play) and will face No. 4 Michigan on Wednesday at Alaska Airlines Arena.

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