Huskies Avoid Disaster, Rally from 15 Down to Beat Cal Poly
Eleven games into a season leaning to mediocrity, the University of Washington basketball team showed up with low energy against Cal Poly, playing in a half-full gym and the evening didn't look promising at all.
One had to wonder if anyone, in or out of uniform, cared about this game.
Yet on Tuesday night, after they were seriously out-hustled, out-rebounded and outplayed for a half, the Huskies regrouped over the second 20 minutes, overcame a 15-point deficit and rescued a 74-68 victory at Alaska Airlines Arena.
For the UW (8-3 overall, 1-1 Pac-12), it was an even mix of embarrassment and enlightenment.
Still, the Huskies didn't come out of this one completely unscathed after having two players taken to the locker room and not returning.
Reserve forward Langton Wilson was helped off the floor in the first half with an injured ankle or knee, initially unable to put any pressure on it, while starting guard PJ Fuller crashed into end-line photographers late in the game, stayed down on the ground for a lengthy time and was taken out of the arena by a trainer.
Luckily for the Huskies, they had Kentucky transfer Keion Brooks who was healthy and felt good about things, especially in the second half. He had a breakout game, finishing with a career-high 30 points, 23 coming after the break — and three more than his college best for Kentucky last season against Kansas — while shooting 10 of 16 from the floor.
Brooks broke a 60-all tie with a driving shot, was fouled and sank the accompanying free throw to put the UW ahead for good with 2:20 remaining.
He got help from 7-foot-1 center Braxton Meah, who supplied 11 points, 8 rebounds and a career-best 6 blocks, and forward Cole Bajema, who chipped in 13 points.
Yet it was a struggle, with the visiting Mustangs (5-4) spotting Mike Hopkins' team an opening three points before going on a 12-0 run and leading for the next 27 minutes.
The Huskies caught up to Cal Poly for the first time since the opening exchanges when Meah dropped in a one-hander for a 52-51 lead with 9:10 left to play.
With 3:32 left on the clock, Fuller got hurt when he drove for a basket that spun out and he continued on and tripped over a photographer and didn't get up right away. The Huskies led 60-58 at the time.
Brooks and Bajema carried the home team to the final buzzer by combining to score 9 of the UW's final 14 points.
Early on, Cal Poly used its ample supply of outside shooters to put together its opening 12-0 run. The visitors had a 15-point lead before the game was nine minutes old, pulling out in front 25-10 on freshman guard Nick Fleming's 3-pointer from the top of the key.
The Mustangs even showed up with a former UW player in 7-foot-1 Bryan Penn-Johnson, who came off the bench and dunked one in so hard it left Wilson injured.
The home team could ill afford to lose yet another player, no matter who it was, after having guard Noah Williams, Franck Kepnang and Samuel Ariyibi seated on the bench for this game in gray sweats, with Kepnang out for the season.
The 6-foot-9 Wilson, receiving rare minutes, woke everyone up early in the game when he slammed one home on an acrobatic rebound follow-up on a teammate's miss.
However, the one-time JC transfer left the game at the 13:06 mark when he came down awkwardly during Penn-Johnson's welcome-home dunk. Wilson was helped to the Husky locker room, unable to put any weight on his left leg. He later returned to the bench but didn't go into the game again.
With an ex-UW big man scoring and a current one getting hurt, that's called adding insult to injury.
Penn-Johnson, who's now played for the UW, LSU, East Los Angeles College and Poly, took just three shots, all dunks, and stuffed all of them through.
Yet the second half belonged to the Huskies and so did the outcome. They play again on Saturday night at 7 p.m. against Idaho State.
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