Merry Christmas, Redhawks: UW Loses, 19-Game Series Win Streak Ends

TheHuskies played poorly coming off a big victory over Washington State.

The UW and SU played before a decent crowd on Monday night. / Dan Raley

Two days before Christmas, the University of Washington basketball team presented Seattle U with an overly generous gift.

Forty minutes of sloppy, uninspired play, not to mention a 15-point halftime lead that grew to 20 before the visiting Redhawks broke for the holiday with a monumental if not historic 79-70 victory in front of a reasonably full Alaska Airlines Arena.

The outcome ended the UW's 19-game win streak in the series and enabled SU to prevail for just the fifth time in 40 outings in a series spanning more than seven decades.

Merry Christmas, Redhawks.

After playing their best game of the season, and beating Washington State 89-73, Danny Sprinkle's guys (8-4 overall, 0-2 Big Ten) had nothing to offer -- they came out and served up one of their worst halves to Seattle U (5-8 overall, 0-0 WAC) and trailed 38-23 at halftime.

It would be the Huskies' first loss to a team they rightly should have beaten, though Seattle U, even with its sub-.500 record, wouldn't want to hear that.

"They came in and competed and the basketball gods gave them what they deserved tonight," Sprinkle said. "They kicked out butt in almost every category."

Mekhi Mason hit the first shot of the game, a soft jumper, and then the Huskies went into an extended funk, going without another field goal for nearly the next eight minutes to drop behind their crosstown rival 16-3. To that point, they were a no-clue 1 for 8 from the floor.

They weren't very good on defense either, giving up a four-point play to the Redhawks' John Christofilis, the Creighton transfer and long-range shooter who grew up in Seattle, by bumping him after he hit a 3-pointer not even three minutes into the game.

In the second half, the Huskies did it again, hacking Christofilis as another 3-pointer whistled through from the corner.

It was the Husky gift that keeps on giving.

The Redhawks' Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe, a 6-foot-8 graduate forward who previously played for Georgia and Oklahoma State, led everyone with 23 points and 16 rebounds, dunking on the home team multiple times, while Christofilis backed him with 21 points.

For the UW, Tyler Harris, the Portland transfer and 6-foot-8 sophomore forward, led with 20 points, while the 6-foot-8 senior Great Osobor, the Utah State transfer, chipped in 19 points and 10 rebounds.

"When you're not making shots, you still have to guard and we didn't do that," Osobor said. "They just kicked our butts."

One of the problems early on for the Huskies was they couldn't get their best outside shooter DJ Davis open long enough to launch a field-goal attempt, let alone make one, for nearly the first 10 minutes of play.

This came after Davis had enjoyed a season-best, 21-point outing to put down the Cougars last week. So much for any momentum with this basketball team.

Davis finally misfired on a couple of 3-pointers before he buried one with 8:11 remaining in the half, pulling his team within 21-13. He would finish with 3 points on 1-for-6 shooting, with all attempts from behind the line.

However, the Huskies turned very one-dimensional on offense to the break. Osobor scored his team's final 10 points while Seattle U had six different players provide points and bump the lead to 15.

Typical of how things went was the final exchange of the opening half.

Redhawks reserve guard Brayden Maldanado snuck inside for an uncontested lay-in and the Huskies came back, put the ball in Osobor's hands and watched as he rammed into a defender, committing an offense foul that wasn't called, and then lost the ball off the dribble as the buzzer sounded.

Twenty minutes still remained.

It was just stocking stuffers after that, with Seattle U letting the Huskies creep within 54-45 with nine and a half minutes remaining and within 77-70 with 26 seconds left.

"We have better players than we showed, but our competitiveness, that's what pisses me off," Sprinkle said. "We better start competing."

The Huskies don't play again until next Sunday when they host NJIT, also known as the New Jersey Institute of Technology and currently standing 2-11, in a game that begins at noon.

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