Huskies Pull Out OT Win over Cal After Trailing Most of the Way

Keion Brooks and Noah Williams top UW with 26 and 22 points.

While the Seattle Seahawks were getting pounded in the playoffs by the San Francisco 49ers, the University of Washington basketball team had its own problems with a Bay Area opponent.

Yet on Saturday afternoon at Alaska Airlines Arena, the Huskies trailed much of the game against the California Bears — the same guys who lost their first 12 games to open the season — before regrouping in the end and pulling out an 81-78 overtime victory.

Keion Brooks' lay-in with 12.2 seconds remaining in regulation play tied the contest at 63 and Braxton Meah's second of two free-throw attempts at the 3:33 mark of the extra session put the Huskies ahead for good at 68-67.

Thus Mike Hopkins' team (11-8 overall, 3-5 Pac-12) was able to sweep the Bay Area schools and avoid a disheartening loss at home after handing Stanford an 86-69 beating on Thursday night.

Brooks, the Kentucky transfer, led all scorers with 26 points and chipped in 10 rebounds. Guard Noah Williams, still dealing with the aftermath of a knee injury that required in-season surgery, had his best UW outing yet with 22 points. Freshman guard Koren Johnson contributed a career-best 15 points for the second consecutive game.

"I felt immortal," said Williams, the WSU transfer who went from playing 5 minutes against Stanford to 35 in the Cal game. "My leg was feeling great. I felt unstoppable. I came in with the right mindset and right approach."

Freshman guard Koren Johnson scored 15 points for the second consecutive game, a career high :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

The Huskies needed every last one of those points to send Cal (3-15, 2-5) home a loser. They fell behind 10-9 and trailed from the 14:04 mark of the first half all the way to Brooks' extra-late bucket to knot things at 63.

The Bears, who were led by freshman forward Grant Newell's 21 points and 10 rebounds, even went up by 11, at 54-43, with 10:10 left in the game and things looked sort of bleak for Hopkins' crew. 

Inside the final 1:45, however, Cal went to the foul line twice with a chance to put the game out of reach, but misfired on three free throws, giving the UW a chance to get back in it. 

Williams practically single-handedly brought the Huskies back in regulation with four late field goals, his pull-up jumper with 1:18 left to go pulling his team to 63-61. He scored 17 of his points after intermission. He shot 10 for 15 from the floor for the game, including 2 of 4 from behind the line, and chipped in 4 rebounds and 3 assists. 

"I knew eventually he was going to break through," Brooks said of his teammate. "It was only going to take time."

With 50 seconds remaining, Cal shot an airball and then incurred a shot-clock violation, unable to build on that precarious 63-61 advantage it held.

With 28 seconds to go, the UW's Keyon Menifield threw a pass that bounced off Williams and went out of bounds. Standing nearby, Hopkins just turned away, with his hands in his pants pockets, probably thinking the worst. It just seemed the Huskies weren't going to do enough to rescue this one.

Yet Cal's Kuany Kuany was most helpful, by missing one of the eerrant free throw with 27.9 seconds on the clock, and the Huskies rebounded and then worked for an equalizing shot.

Brooks provided it by driving down the left side of the lane and laying the ball back up and over his head and in.

The overtime was almost all Huskies. The teams were tied at 65 and 67 before the UW pulled ahead on the Meah free throw and stayed there.

Unlike the Seahawks, the Huskies lived to play another day.

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