Washington puts clamps on Washington State for 78-70 win, Apple Cup split
Terrell Brown Jr. was tremendous in the second half for Washington Saturday, helping the Huskies to a 78-70 win over Washington State at home to split the season series with their in-state rivals.
It’s the exact score the Cougars beat Washington with in Pullman on Wednesday, and it’s nearly a perfect script reversal from that game. In beating Washington on Wednesday, the Cougars negated a 3-point shooting disadvantage with more than 20 attempts at the foul line. On Saturday, the Cougars saw Michael Flowers make seven triples, but 29 free throw attempts from UW was enough to balance things out.
The Huskies got it done with two things that’ll make any coach happy: defense and foul shooting.
Flowers, who finished with 30 points on 7-of-12 shooting from 3 and 9-of-18 shooting from the field, was the only Cougar with more than 10 points. Tyrell Roberts was 3-for-12. Mouhamed Gueye was 5-for-12. Noah Williams was 2-for-13.
Flowers hit tough shots at big junctures for the Cougars. Everyone else struggled to crack Washington’s mixed zone pressure. As a team, Washington State shot just 34% and turned it over 12 times.
The Cougars had a six-point halftime lead, too. Washington was loose with the ball and cold from the field to start, falling down 15-8 out of the gates.
But the Huskies came roaring out of the halftime break—a 12-2 run—to flip the deficit into a slight lead. Suddenly, it was Washington State playing loose with the ball, getting possession poked away only to watch Brown run it down the floor in a flash and get to the rim.
Brown, the Pac-12’s leading scorer, put up 21 of his 25 points in the final 20 minutes. He shot 7-for-12 from the field and knocked in 7-of-9 from the charity stripe. Brown pushed the tempo and drew constant attention. Emmitt Matthews Jr., who had nine of his 15 points in the half, and Nate Roberts (seven of his nine) benefitted from that little bit of extra space around the hoop.
Triples from Williams, Flowers, and Roberts each in the final 2:17 kept the Cougars within striking range, but Washington made its free throws to stay in front.
As a team, the Huskies were 17-for-22 from the charity stripe in the second half.
The win broke a four-game slide and swapped Washington and Washington State on the league table for the No. 6 and No. 7 spots. The Huskies (14-13, 9-8 Pac-12) have a chance to climb a little higher when they host No. 12 UCLA on Monday. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. PT on ESPN2.
The Cougars (15-13, 8-9 Pac-12) play at Oregon State on Monday at 8 p.m. PT on ESPNU.