Huskies Grind Out Inartistic Win Over OSU, Sweep Oregon Schools

The UW survived a sloppy one on Saturday at Alaska Airlines Arena.

The only greatness involving Saturday's University of Washington-Oregon State basketball game came a few minutes prior to tipoff.

Jaylen Nowell, the Huskies' 2019 Pac-12 Player of the Year and now a four-year NBA veteran, strode to midcourt, stood next to UW coach Mike Hopkins and received his college jersey No. 5  in a frame and a round of applause.

That was it. 

Otherwise, a fairly sizable Alaska Airlines Arena crowd settled in and watched two bad Pac-12 basketball teams go at it for a couple of hours, trading missed shots, airballs, shot-clock violations and plenty of turnovers before the Huskies pulled away with a stone-age 61-47 victory.

"It wasn't pretty, but we found a way," said Hopkins, who earned his 100th coaching victory in Seattle. 

The outcome provided the UW (15-13 overall, 7-10 Pac-12) with a sweep of the Oregon schools on this home stand and its first two-game winning streak in a month, since beating Stanford, California and Colorado in consecutive games.

The UW's Keion Brooks Jr. and Keyon Menifield battle Oregon State's Michael Rataj for the ball while all were seated.  :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

While putting one in the win column was no doubt satisfying, the Huskies still hardly looked like a team building for a late-season postseason push, rather merely one that dismissed a tepid Oregon State entry (10-18, 4-13) that had beaten them 66-65 in Corvallis on Dec. 1.

"It's hard but you've got to keep your mental and keep going," said Husky center Braxton Meah, who had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. "Know that a couple turns down it's going to come back your way."

In this effort, the UW spotted the visitors an opening basket before taking a permanent lead once Jamal Bey sank an opening 3-pointer on his way to a game-high 15 points. But the Huskies never seemed like they were ever in total control.

Hopkins' team couldn't shake the Beavers over the first 20 minutes even while building a 10-point lead.

These Northwest rivals headed for the locker rooms at the break having combined for a miserly 44 points — the UW led 26-18 — a whopping 25 turnovers and just 3 3-pointers in 22 attempts, with the Beavers going without one in seven tries. Overall, the Huskies shot 32 percent, Oregon State just 30 percent.

It was a half beyond ugly.

Keyon Menifield was a lone bright spot for the UW in the first half with 10 of his 12 points.  :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

After intermission, things got a little better as the UW spotted the Beavers a lay-in to Michael Rataj, a German big man — remember, when the Huskies used to have some of those? — before finally putting some space between it and Oregon State on the scoreboard. Of course, it didn't initially hold up.

Koren Johnson's 3-pointer had the home team ahead by 15, at 42-27 with 12 minutes remaining. Yet the Beavers scrambled back within six, the first time at 46-40 on a jumper from 6-foot-9 freshman Tyler Bilodeau from Kennewick, Washington, with 6:02 left to play.

Oregon State finally raised a white flag by getting outscored 15-3 down the stretch. The Beavers were led in scoring by the 11 points each of Jordan Pope and Glenn Taylor Jr. They shot just 2-for-19 from 3-point range.

The UW had five players in double figures with Bey supported by Meah and Keyon Menifield's 12 points and Keion Brooks and Johnson's 11 apiece. No one else scored for the Huskies.

"We've had our ups and downs, but they've stayed with it," Hopkins said. 

The Huskies now prepare for a final regular-season road trip to the Bay Area, facing a really bad basketball team in California (3-23, 2-13 before testing UCLA later in the night) on Thursday night in Berkeley. 

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