To say that some of Washington’s victories have been less than aesthetically pleasing would be the polite way to put it.
These Huskies win ugly.
But after the past two seasons, in which they finished no better than 11th place in the Pac-12 Conference, they will take wins any way they can get them.
Take Saturday’s home game against Utah, in which Washington had to go to double overtime to defeat the conference’s last-place team 77-73, sending the Utes to their 10th consecutive defeat.
Up next for the Huskies (11-8, 6-3), who have won five of their past six games, is a trip to Berkeley to face host Cal (9-13, 2-9) on Thursday night. The Golden Bears have lost eight consecutive games.
“It wasn’t pretty, by any stretch of the imagination,” Huskies coach Mike Hopkins said of Saturday’s victory. “But the plays they made were tough. It felt like everything was against us. And they just kept fighting.”
Terrell Brown Jr. had 30 points, four rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots against the Utes to earn his second Pac-12 Player of the Week honor this season.
The Golden Bears are coming off a 57-50 loss Tuesday at rival Stanford despite Jordan Shepherd’s game-high 15 points.
Cal was without Andre Kelly, its top interior threat. Kelly, who averages 13.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, injured an ankle Saturday against USC.
“Defensively, I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win,” Cal coach Mark Fox said of Tuesday’s game. “I do think that we wore down a little bit in the second half. Certainly we missed Andre on the offensive end …
“It’s not about getting close. We’ve got to start closing the deal. We’ve got to eliminate some of these mistakes that, at the end of the day, are so, so costly.”
The schools met Jan. 12 in Seattle, with the Huskies overcoming a nine-point deficit early in the second half to win 64-55. Brown scored 21 for Washington and Nate Roberts added 10 points with 12 rebounds.
–Field Level Media
