Huskies Go Oh-for-Arizona with Loss to ASU

Mike Hopkins' slumping team drops fifth consecutive game.

Dan Raley | Jan 8, 2023

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Washington Huskies

The University of Washington basketball team's tour of Tempe didn't go any better than the Husky football visit three months earlier.

At least the weather outside looked nice and warm, and the food was probably pretty good.

On Sunday, Mike Hopkins' Huskies led early at Arizona State before doing an irreversible fade to open the second half and lost 73-65 — their fifth consecutive setback in a season fast slipping away.

It was a wasted road trip all around for the UW (9-8 overall, 1-5 Pac-12), which got swept by both Arizona schools over three days and hasn't fared well in conference play at home or away.

The question that needs to be asked now is will Hopkins' Huskies completely go in the tank after losing every game of the new year and more?

And will the UW's personable but embattled sixth-year coach survive this latest program downturn after surviving so many potholes in previous seasons?

Hopkins' situation is looking more and more precarious with each added defeat.

Demond Cambridge Jr. dishes a pass between the UW's Keyon Menifield and Keion Brooks. — Desmond Cambridge Jr. whips a pass through Huskies Keyon Menifield and Keion Brooks :: Joe Camporeale/USA TODAY Sports

This game was especially ugly after halftime. From a 28-26 deficit, the poor-shooting Huskies (35.8 percent from the field, 28.0 behind the line) were outscored 24-10 by ASU (13-3, 4-1) coming out of the break and fell behind by as many as 20, the last time at 73-53.

Only in the final minute and a half of play did the UW get on any kind of roll, outscoring the hosts 12-0 to the buzzer, but it was far too late.

Keion Brooks and Noah Williams shared top scoring honors for the Huskies with 15 points each, while ASU's Devin Cambridge led all scorers with 18.

The Huskies return home to face conceivably an even worse team than themselves in Stanford (5-10, 0-5) on Thursday night at Alaska Airlines Arena.

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Published Jan 8, 2023

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.