Inside The Huskies

Huskies Shake Off Doldrums, Win 17th in a Row Over Seattle U

The UW overcome 7-point halftime deficit to keep domination going.

Dan Raley

For a half, Seattle U played like it was 1979.

When it was a Division I basketball program.

Known as the Chieftains.

Dancing to disco. 

Able to beat Washington

Unfortunately, time was not on the Redhawks' side. 

They woke up in the present.

Outscoring their collegiate neighbors 20-2 coming out of intermission, the Huskies reset the clock and beat Seattle U for the 17th consecutive time, winning 64-56 on Saturday night at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Emmitt Matthews Jr., the West Virginia transfer and 6-foot-7 forward from Tacoma, scored 10 of his team-high 17 points in that big second-half splurge. He threw down three dunks, nailed a 3-pointer and sank 1 of 2 free throws, all in the first four minutes of the second half. 

This enabled the UW (5-4) to bounce back from an unwanted three-week layoff caused by COVID complications that ran rampant through the roster, canceling or postponing three games.

It took the Huskies a full half to find their basketball rhythm again.

"Obviously, we went a while without any games and what not," said Matthews, who had 11 rebounds, good for a double-double. "But the opportunity presented itself and we had a game today. We had no choice but to come out and play this game, regardless of the matter. All that stuff is out the window now."

The Huskies fell behind early by 11, at 22-11, and led just twice in the opening 20 minutes.

Sensing the discomfort in their hosts, the Chieftains (8-4) pushed the issue behind Darrion Trammell and Riley Grigsby and settled into a 35-28 lead at the break.

Grigsby would lead all scorers with 20 points while Trammell chipped in 18.

It wasn't nearly enough. 

Seattle U lost to its 206 brethren for the 33rd time in 37 outings.

It all came unraveled when Matthews hit a free throw 17 seconds into the half, dunked off a Terrell Brown pass and sank a trey from the left side to tie the game at 35 before Seattle U responded with a floater from Trammell.

Tied at 37, Matthews supplied a pair of dunks sandwiched around a pair of Brown drives, and the Huskies had a 47-37 advantage and proceeded to toy with their rivals the rest of the way. 

PJ Fuller gets ready to drive against Seattle U.
PJ Fuller gets ready to drive on Seattle U.  :: Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

The UW did its damage without much of an outside game, hitting just 2 of 15 3-pointers.

Brown, the Huskies' leading scorer, finished with 16, five below his average, and he connected on 8 of 19 shots, but his floor leadership kept his team close and then made it a winner.  

"It was just getting adjusted to the game again," Brown said. "Three weeks is a long time."

It was all enough to keep Seattle college basketball domination in place in Montlake for at least another year, if not another decade.

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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.

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