Brown-led Huskies Enjoy Another Big Night in South Dakota, win 87-76
The difference between the Washington basketball team's first and second nights in South Dakota was the crowd.
In the Huskies' opener against George Mason, it was so sparse inside the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls you could hear a lone woman complain all game long about the officiating.
On Tuesday night, the locals came out in much larger numbers to see the UW take on their high-scoring South Dakota State team, turning things a lot more lively.
What was similar was Terrell Brown Jr., who went another scoring rampage, dropping in a career-high 32 points by hitting 13 of 18 highly creative shots.
The Huskies shrugged off the hometown team and its partisan following with another strong effort, beating the Jackrabbits 87-76 and ultimately quieting everyone from baseline to baseline and sending them home disappointed.
Mike Hopkins' team looks so comfortable in this Midwest state, it might consider spending a couple extra days, maybe visit Mount Rushmore or take a motorcycle ride up to Sturgis after its final game against Nevada on Wednesday night.
For now, the Huskies (4-2) are content turning themselves into a cohesive group that has a chance to win every night, which runs in stark contrast to the previous team. The positive outcome over South Dakota State brought the UW within one victory of last season's tally (5-21).
Against South Dakota State (5-2), Brown scored 21 in the second half for the second consecutive outing as the Huskies never trailed and built a 13-point lead on multiple occasions.
"He got the look in his eyes," Hopkins said, "and he was just incredible."
When things got a tad dicey for the Huskies coming down the stretch, the 6-foot-3 Arizona transfer went to work. In one stretch, he scored 15 consecutive points for his team on a variety of winding, off-balance shots.
With the Huskies up just 65-61, Brown dared the Jackrabbits' Chucky Easley to try and stop him. He tossed in a one-hander while getting knocked to the floor with 7:33 left to play. He dropped in the foul shot, giving him 24 points to that point.
"Terrell Brown just took over," his coach marveled.
Brown scored a previous career-best 31 on four occasions for Seattle University, his original Division 1 stop, and he came up with 30 for the Huskies against Wyoming last week in an overtime loss.
He received plenty of help at the Pentagon, too, with PJ Fuller coming off the bench for a second productive night in a row with 14 points, Emmitt Matthews Jr. providing 13 and Jamal Bey adding 12.
Collectively, all of the Huskies followed the lead of Brown and took highly make-able shots, hitting a sizzling 58.3 percent from the field, 45.5 percent from behind the line, a vast improvement over their earlier outings.
The Jackrabbits came in advertised as a free-wheeling team, averaging 90 points a game. The UW, alternating zone and man defenses, was the first to hold them under 80 this season.
Supposedly one of the nation's leading 3-point-shooting teams, they hit just 6 of 17 treys, finishing below 9 in a game for the first time, too.
When the final buzzer sounded, Brown walked off the court tightly clutching the basketball, no doubt going looking for another game.
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