Huskies Fall Behind Early, Can't Catch Stanford in Bay Area

The UW came back from a double-digit deficit to trail by one late but couldn't finish the job against the Cardinal.

The Washington basketball team fell behind by 13 points early and fought back to trail by one late in the game, but ultimately was saddled with a 90-80 defeat at Stanford in Palo Alto to close out a three-game road trip on Saturday night. 

UW forwards Keion Brooks Jr. and Moses Wood each provided 13 points a piece in the second-half rally. Brooks finished with a team-high 20 points and Wood scored 18 points. 

The problem for the Huskies, though, was no one could stop Cardinal forward Spencer Jones, who finished with a game- and career-high 30 points on 8-of-12 shooting from 3-point territory. 

The 6-foot-7 senior closed out the final three minutes by hitting a pair of free throws to ice a 10-point victory for Stanford. Jones scored 22 points in the second half alone. 

Before the game began to get away from the UW late in the second half, victory was within reach. 

The Huskies (11-8 overall, 3-5 Pac-12) cut the deficit to one ata 64-63 with 7:47 left to play when Brooks completed a three-point play. They were down just 67-65 when Nate Calmese hit a jumper with 6:37 left and 71-69 on a second-chance layup by forward Wilhelm Breidenbach with 5:29 to go. 

That was it.

On the ensuing Stanford possession after Breidenbach's score, Jones responded with a 3-pointer for a 74-69 lead that put the dagger in UW. 

As the game trailed off, the Huskies fell behind  by as much as 14 points before graduate transfer point guard Sahvir Wheeler scored a layup to stop a 9-2 Stanford run. 

A concern for coach Mike Hopkins had to be the 18 fouls his UW players committed in the second half alone. 

Stanford came out strong, opening a 22-9 lead in the first eight minutes before the Huskies started to find their footing. 

Wood hit a pair of free throws with just over five minutes remaining before halftime to cut the deficit to 29-25. Yet the Cardinal pulled away just before the buzzer to send the two teams into the break separated 39-31. 

The Huskies return to Alaska Airlines Arena on Wednesday to open a three-game homestand hosting Colorado. 

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