Inside The Huskies

Huskies Make it Un-Bearable for Cal in Road Rout

The UW trailed only once in posting an easy victory at Haas Pavilion.

Dan Raley

The game began with Emmitt Matthews Jr. sinking high-arching shots seemingly from San Francisco to Berkeley.

More often the second option, the 6-foot-7 forward from Tacoma scored the first seven points for the University of Washington basketball team as the Huskies seized control at the outset and breezed to an 84-63 victory at California.

Yet Matthews' hot hand was just a bridge to another high-scoring performance by teammate Terrell Brown Jr., the Pac-12 leader, who went the first eight minutes without a point. Brown finished with 19 points, three off of his average, and 8 assists.

Matthews' opening salvo also enabled UW teammate Daejon Davis, the former Stanford guard, to get loose in his first trip back to the Bay Area since coming home to Seattle. The duly inspired Davis supplied 19 points, his second-highest total this season. It was his first double-digit outing in eight games.

Finally, Matthews' fast start permitted UW junior guard Jamal Bey to find a rhythm and unwind for a season- and team-high 20 points on 7-for-14 shooting, 4 of 7 from behind the line.

Oh yeah, as for Matthews, the lefty finished with a workmanlike 11-point, 5-rebound, 3-assist and 3-block outing, his stat line as well-rounded as his team on this night.

Growing more confident and cohesive with each outing, these veteran Huskies (12-8 overall, 7-3 Pac-12) won their sixth game in seven outings by absolutely having their way with Cal (9-14, 2-10) practically from wire to wire at a sparsely crowded Haas Pavilion.

"It's a program thing from top to bottom," Davis said in Pac-12 Network interview. "Each day we have the same message in our chat box: Believe. We're just coming in with a different mindset."

Terrell Brown got going after going scoreless for the first eight minutes.
Terrell Brown went scoreless for eight minutes at Cal before he got goi :: Darren Yamashita/USA TODAY Sports

The guys in the purple uniforms trailed only at 2-0. 

This allowed them to sweep the Bears after beating them 64-55 in Seattle three weeks earlier.

Matthews scored on a lay-in to open the Husky scoring and knot the game. The southpaw then set his feet, took aim and left fly with a rainbow 3-pointer that sliced though the net. 

Two and a half minutes into the action, Matthews did it again, only dropping in another fast-descending swisher from 15 feet out, and the rout was on.

Brown didn't score until the 11:55 mark of the opening half when he drove hard to the basket and made it, got fouled by Cal's Grant Anticevich and completed the three-point play for a 13-8 advantage. That got him going. 

Jamal Bey, on defense, had a 20-point night on offense.
Jamal Bey had a big night at Cal :: Darren Yamashita/USA TODAY Sports

He supplied 13 points by halftime as the Huskies crept out to a 14-point lead at 36-22 before breaking with a 38-29 advantage.

Intermission only served to recharge the UW, not the host team.

With Davis hitting from inside and outside, his 3-pointer at the 12:44 mark gave the Huskies a 58-38 lead. All that was left was to determine the margin of victory.

"I'm just building chemistry with the guys," the guard said. "I'm finding my place."

Davis sank 7 of his 10 shots, 5 of 7 from behind the 3-point line, as he was two off his highest point total of the season. He had 21 against Winthrop in late November.

The Huskies will now take a couple of days off before finishing up this road trip at Stanford (13-8, 6-5) on Sunday afternoon in Palo Alto. 

The Cardinal lost to Washington State 66-60 on Thursday night, not a great momentum-builder to face a UW team enjoying ultimate togetherness.

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Husky Maven stories as soon as they’re published.

Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.

Find Husky Maven on Facebook by searching: Husky Maven/Sports Illustrated

Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

Published
Dan Raley
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.

Home/Basketball