Huskies Reward Large Crowd with 2-OT Victory
The largest crowd in two seasons, maybe three-quarters capacity, turned out for Saturday afternoon's Washington-Utah basketball game at Alaska Airlines Arena.
Pandemic be damned, they came to see a team that, while it might not be headed for a Pac-12 championship or an NCAA tournament berth, is entertaining.
These Huskies did not disappoint. Coming off a two-point win over Colorado, they were pushed to double overtime by a nagging Utah squad that just would not go away and they emerged with a 77-73 victory on Saturday afternoon at Alaska Airlines Arena.
Daejon Davis opened the second extra session by hitting a 3-pointer from the left side, his only made field goal of the game, to put the Huskies ahead for good, and Cole Bajema matched him the next time down the floor with a trey from the opposite side.
Senior guard Terrell Brown was his usual high-scoring self, dropping in a game-best 30 points to further solidify his position as the league's leading scorer.
Even often offense-challenged center Nate Roberts had a season-high 11 points all before halftime, two off his career best.
"You keep believing and you have results like this," said Roberts, a 6-foot-11, 250-pound post man from Washington, D.C., of winning the close one.
With all of these guys playing a key role, the Huskies (11-8 overall, 6-3 Pac-12) swept the conference's two mountain-region schools and captured their fifth conference win in six tries.
To a man, they noticed the bigger crowd, announced by the UW at 7,729, and they heard it, too.
"I looked up and that was huge," Brown said. "I took it in for a moment."
It was just another sign that UW basketball is healing after a couple of losing seasons compounded by the COVID limitations.
On this day, the Huskies survived by having shots by Utah guard Both Gach at the end of regulation and the first overtime harmlessly bounce off.
They showed greater resilience in the second extra period by outscoring the conference's last-pace Utes (8-14, 1-11) 8-1 to open play, beginning with Davis' 3-pointer.
"He was open," Brown said. "I don't have to take every shot."
This was obvious in the beginning as Roberts was far more involved in the action. He scored the Huskies' first six points of the game. The guy in the bright orange sneakers -- that look a lot like traffic cones -- caught a couple of lob passes and laid the ball in and followed up a Brown miss for the other. This was huge for him and his team.
It's far more of a fair fight when he's involved on the scoring end, making opponents pay attention to him.
"He does a lot of dirty work for us," Brown said "I appreciate him."
Terrell Brown hits a first-half shot at the buzzer.
Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports
Roberts entered the game with just two other double-figure performances in the previous 18 games, collecting 10 in the season opener against Northern Illinois and 10 more against California two weeks earlier.
Usually he has trouble staying on the floor, let alone putting the ball in the basket, because he's often in foul trouble, though he's fouled out of just three games.
Alaska Airlines Arena before tipoff.
Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports
At the 15:39 mark of the first half, Roberts accepted a lob pass from Jamal Bey, laid it in and extended the Husky advantage to 6-2. That was noteworthy because the bucket enabled him to exceed his season scoring average of 4.1 points per game coming in.
Midway through the half, Roberts dunked for a 19-12 lead.
Inside the final two minutes before intermission, Brown dished inside to his big man, who scored, got fouled and completed the three-point play for his 11 first-half points and a 30-25 lead. The foul shot was a breakthrough, too, considering he was a 39.5 percent marksman from the line coming in.
He headed for the bench having hit all five of his shots from the floor and that lone free throw, high-fiving everyone along the sideline.
Roberts would take just one more shot attempt the rest of the game, coming on a tip-in that wouldn't drop, as each of these teams primarily turned the scoring over to their leading men.
Seven-footer Branden Carlson led Utah with 18 points, showing his versatility with a 3-pointer in the first overtime. Otherwise, he had a deft touch from the key.
Brown played more than anyone for either team, logging nearly 45 minutes of the 50. He hit 10 of 23 shots from the floor and for him an unsatisfactory 9 of 14 from the line. Roberts, who was the Huskies second-leading scorer behind Brown, also came up with 9 rebounds, which was on fewer than teammate Emmitt Matthews.
Together, they put on a show. Chances are, a lot of those fans will be back to see more.
"The crowd was electric," Roberts said. "There was a lot of points we couldn't hear anything."
Arena noise is a very good thing.
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