Huskies Win First Game in 26 Days, Stop Stanford

The UW overcomes momentary slow start to romp.

The University of Washington basketball team fell behind 7-0 to open the game, forcing coach Mike Hopkins to call for a timeout.

His guys didn't score for the first three and a half minutes against Stanford, showing every reason why they were weighted down by a cumbersome five-game losing streak.

Same old Huskies, right?

Not on Thursday night, as these UW players settled in and won for the first time in 2023, for the first time in 26 days and convincingly over the last-place Cardinal 86-69 in a half-full Alaska Airlines Arena.

Thus the Huskies (10-8 overall, 2-5 Pac-12) stopped the lingering misery and rejected the notion they might be the worst team in the conference.

No, that would be this Stanford team (5-11, 0-6). It led for the first 10 minutes before coming completely unglued and falling down by 18 at half, 47-29.

The Cardinal never recovered. They were so bad on this night that coach Jerod Haase resorted to subbing out his entire lineup like a hockey shift change.

Nothing slowed the Huskies, who made a genuine effort to get 7-foot-1 center Braxton Meah, and he responded with a career-best 21 points, with all eight of his field goals coming on dunks. 

They also unleashed their freshman guards Keyon Menifield and Koren Johnson in the open floor for a combined 26 points, 8 assists and 7 steals, with Johnson also offering a career-high outing with 15 points. The 6-foot-1 guard from Seattle's Garfield High School notably sank 4 of 6 3-point shots for a team in desperate need of an outside threat.

Kentucky transfer Keyon Brooks chipped in a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds for the UW, as well. 

Koren Johnson might have had his best game against Stanford / Skylar Lin Visuals

After ignoring Meah throughout their recent Arizona road trip, the Huskies went to him early and often, continually lobbing passes around the rim and letting him go after it. He finished by hitting 8 of 10 shots, making all dunks. He also grabbed 9 rebounds and blocked 5 shots

Yet the Huskies still don't use him to post up and shoot short jumpers or one-handers. The guy went 3-for-3 from the foul line, so he can be accurate from 15 feet. It's something to consider. 

Not much changed in the second half as the UW simply kept the visitors at a safe distance and put the wraps on its first victory since beating Idaho State 90-55 on Dec. 17.

Hopkins' team will be hard-pressed to get out of the lower division, but it has another highly winnable game on Saturday against the struggling California Golden Bears (3-14, 2-4), coached by Mark Fox, the one-time UW assistant.

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