Huskies Overcome Early Swings and Misses to Land Knockout Punch

Terrell Brown Jr., Emmitt Matthews Jr. and Nate Roberts help put Oregon away in spite of misfires.

Dan Raley | Mar 4, 2022

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Washington Huskies

Terrell Brown Jr. couldn't miss, scoring the first eight points for his University of Washington basketball team. A jumper here, a jumper there, buckets everywhere. Curiously, his teammates early on had trouble just hitting the rim.

On Thursday night against Oregon, Brown kept his guys in there during a tough spell and his teammates, namely Emmitt Matthews Jr. and Nate Roberts, got in a nice groove.

Brown and Matthews shared team scoring honors with 25 points each and the offensively challenged Roberts came up with a career-high 18 points before fouling out as the Huskies coasted to a 78-67 victory over the Ducks.

The 6-foot-11 Roberts, who also had 16 rebounds, scored five more than his career best against Montana last year and seven more than his season high against Utah.

It also helped that everyone eventually was able to settle down from their early misguided marksmanship, thus evening the score on a 28-point loss at Oregon last month.

"We realized we were the same team that played them the first time and we're a good team," Roberts said. "Every Dawg has its day."

It was weird, though.

Float Like a Butterfly / Skylar Lin Visuals

Terrell Brown Jr. had 25 points on an assortment of shots.

Nate Roberts helps Terrell Brown Jr. off the ground.

Cole Bajema looks inside for Nate Roberts.

The Dawg Pack looks on as the Huskies take a timeout.

Terrell Brown Jr. uses Nate Roberts to get loose.

Emmitt Matthews Jr. also had 25 points.

A Nate Roberts autograph was a hot item.

After Brown dropped in 4 of his first 5 shots for an early 8-4 advantage, someone took the air out of the ball.

In a span of six minutes, the Huskies (15-14 overall, 10-9 Pac-12) launched no fewer than six airballs, enabling Oregon (18-12, 11-8) to claim the lead and flirt with taking control of things.

Over three consecutive possessions, Matthews Jr. missed everything on consecutive shots from the baseline, followed by PJ sending up one from beyond the top of the key that touched absolutely nothing coming down.

All of the Huskies looked a little bewildered by this. It was like a golfer with a bad case of the yips. It was only momentary craziness, though it still wasn't done.

Langston Wilson grabs a rebound in a crowd. — Langston Wilson pulls a rebound out of a crowd. :: Stephen Brashear/USA TODAY Sports

Trailing 13-8, reserve Langston Wilson put one up that overshot the rim by a wide margin, but quickly reclaimed the ball and scored. That was better.

Wilson next grabbed a rebound of Cole Bajema's errant free throw, tossed the ball up and it didn't come close to hitting anything. That was worse.

Finally, there was just one more big miss in them when Jamal Bey drove to the basket and put up a shot that descended well short of everything.

Amazingly, the Huskies came out of this county fair horror show trailing only 17-16 and really lacking only the stuffed animal. Matthews, for instance, finished with 9-for-13 even with his airballs.

"I thought we were the aggressors," coach Mike Hopkins said. "We attacked them."

Brown also got hot again.

He hit a couple of foul-line jumpers around another bit of shooting catastrophe — Roberts whiffed on a ferocious two-hand dunk — but the UW would no longer make it tough on itself.

Tied at 20, Brown hit a pair of free throws that sent the Huskies on a 13-0 run.

Roberts actually put the ball on the floor and drove from the foul line to score, knocking over a Duck defender in the process but not getting called for it.

The Huskies headed to the locker room leading 33-23 and feeling pretty good about everything except having their egos bruised some on all those airballs.

"We just had to show them we belonged," Brown said.

Roberts, who celebrated his 22nd birthday this week, turned into an absolute monster inside to open the second half. He helped the Huskies ease out to a 23-point advantage before Oregon chipped away at it. In one stretch, the big man from Washington, D.C., scored 8 of 12 UW points to give his team a 56-33 lead.

The UW will close out the regular season against Oregon State in a Saturday afternoon game in which it will recognize its seniors. Hopkins said nine players will go through the pregame ceremony whether they end up leaving or not.

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Published Mar 4, 2022

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.