Huskies Survive Shaky Start and Finish to Win Wooden Opener

The UW downs Fresno State 62-57 in a sloppy tourney outing.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — It wasn't the way John Wooden would have drawn it up, but the University of Washington basketball team overcame a horrendous start and staggering finish to win its Wooden Legacy opener, beating Fresno State 62-57 in a virtually empty Anaheim Arena.

On the night before Thanksgiving, the Huskies (4-1 overall) played like a turkey early on, shooting miserably, before coming out looking like a golden goose. They missed their first seven field-goal attempts, misfiring badly. They fell behind 8-0.

And they won.

Luckily for Mike Hopkins' players, they faced a senior-laden but often out-of-control Mountain West team (1-4) that just couldn't help itself at times — by doing something wrong after it did something right.

Midway through the opening half, Bulldogs' big men Isaih Moore and Eduardo Andre threw down consecutive dunks on the Huskies only for both players to get immediately whistled for technical fouls for trash-talking and showboating following each play, respectively.

The UW, which won this event in 2014, advances to the championship game on Thursday night at 9:30 p.m. PT, well after the dressing and cranberry sauce has been put away, against St. Mary's, a 75-65 opening-night winner over Vanderbilt and unbeaten in six games.

“We knew coming into this game that it was going to be a rock fight, an old school rock fight," Hopkins said.

Keion Brooks, the Kentucky transfer, struggled for a second game after returning from an unspecified injury, but he was able to turn things around, same as his UW team, and finish with a game-high 16 points on 4-of-15 shooting and 7-for-7 foul shooting. No other Husky reached double figures.

In the opening half, the UW newcomer connected on just 2 of 10 shots mostly trying to score in the key. Yet he kept after it in other ways and blocked 3 first-half shots.

After taking control early in the second half, these overly generous Huskies let a 14-point lead get whittled to just four, at 59-55 with 37.8 seconds remaining, before regrouping.

At the game's outset, the ice-cold UW finally scored its first points of the game at the 15:07 mark when guard PJ Fuller got stuck holding the ball inside the key, had no one to pass to and launched one off one foot that swished through.

The great Wooden would have been shaking his head over all of this.

Hopkins finally got his team to settle down by inserting freshmen guards Keyon Menifield and Koren Johnson, who together scored five consecutive points to give the Huskies their first leads of the game at 12-11 and 14-13.

Braxton Meah faced his former team in Fresno State at the Wooden Legacy. He finished with 4 points, 7 rebounds and a blocked shot :: Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports

Fresno State still took a 28-27 halftime lead when Jemari Baker, who had previous stops at Kentucky and Arizona but didn't team with the UW's Brooks at the SEC school, banked one in right before the buzzer sounded.

Once the break was over, it was Fresno State's turn to miss everything. It was the Bulldogs who turned stone cold at 0-for-8 before Andre scored with 15:55 left in the game. They never fully recovered from this agonizing dry spell.

Meantime, the Huskies settled into a decent offensive groove, outscoring Fresno State 16-4 to build a 43-32 advantage. Key to this particular run were two folos, one a resounding flying dunk, by 7-foot-1 Braxton Meah, who was playing against his former team for the first time. Meah finished with 4 points, 7 rebounds and a blocked shot.

“I loved it," Meah said. "I got to play against the people I've been playing with for the past couple of years and it was this amazing experience. I got to do it with my new family so it made it even better. I'm so used to being with them so
going against them it just felt weird, but I made it happen.” 

Eduardo Andre dunked over the UW's Cole Bajema and Franck Kepnang :: Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports

Brooks helped the Huskies build a 14-point lead midway through the second half by rattling off eight consecutive points in one sequence. He scored on a layin, was fouled and converted a three-point play; hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key, and hit a pair of free throws and his team went up 53-39 with 9:52 left in the game.

Then it was hang-on time for the UW, but still a needed non-conference and tourney victory. 

Wooden wouldn't have been happy at all with this performance, but it worked for the Huskies.

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