Huskies Hammer Sun Devils, Don't Need Injured Davis
As a young women eloquently belted out the national anthem, Daejon Davis stood there in his warmup sweats. In a sympathetic gesture, teammate Nate Roberts kept his arm draped around the point guard's neck throughout the song. It was clear Davis wasn't going to play.
Injured at Stanford the game before, the University of Washington playmaker, normally a starter, picked a good night to sit back and watch.
The Huskies didn't need him at all.
With everyone else ready to go and PJ Fuller and Cole Bajema filling in ably for Davis, the UW took control from the opening tip and never trailed in giving Arizona State a 87-64 beating on Thursday night at Alaska Airlines Arena.
While the UW's Terrell Brown Jr. led all scorers with 19 points, Fuller drew his first Husky start in place of Davis and he and Bajema more than compensated for their missing teammate. They combined for 28 points, with Fuller providing 16 of them.
A transfer from TCU, Fuller started 18 games a year ago for the Big 12 team, but had maintained a sixth-man role since returning to Seattle.
"It was definitely a special moment for me," the 6-foot-4 junior said. "It's home. It was what I hoped to do. It was a dream come true."
In front of a half full but noisy gym, Brown hit the first shot of the game on a baseline jumper and the UW (13-9 overall, 8-4 Pac-12) was off and running. ASU answered with a pair of free throws.
The next time down the floor, Fuller drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key.
Brown hit a pair of free throws on the third trip and the Sun Devils got their first bucket on a tip-in.
On the fourth possession, Emmitt Matthews Jr. connected on his own high-arching 3 from the right corner. Matthews would chip in 15 points to aid the cause.
Three minutes into the action, Matthews raced down the floor and dunked hard on the Sun Devils (7-15, 3-9) and it was 12-4 and Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley had seen enough.
In his starched white shirt and tie, a frustrated Hurley gestured for two players to go to the scorer's table.
A few seconds later, an equally piqued Hurley called for a timeout.
As for the idle Davis?
He just sat back and watched comfortably as his teammates took it to ASU without him.
"I tried to do what he does and do a little more on top of that," Fuller said of Davis. "Because I knew this team was going to need it."
Terrell Brown shoots over ASU's DJ Horne.
Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports
Twelve minutes into the game, the Huskies went up by 18 after reserve forward Langston Wilson was flipped onto his back on a flagrant foul, but he got to his feet and sank one of two free throws.
The lead grew to 20 points when Matthews caught the ball in the corner with a man on him, hesitated when the defender didn't close on him and then let go with a 3-pointer for a 39-19 lead with 4:44 left in the half.
ASU finally showed up and made things interesting briefly by closing the margin to 42-32 by intermission.
At the break, Husky coach Mike Hopkins and Davis sat on the bench and chatted while the other players warmed up for the second 20 minutes.
The UW still didn't need him. The lead ultimately reached 27 at 81-54 on a pair of Bajema free throws.
Midway through the second half, the scoreboard temporarily stopped working, requiring the PA announcer to call out the changing score.
It was only a momentary outage, which couldn't be said about the Sun Devils.
The Huskies next host No. 4-ranked Arizona (21-2, 11-1) on Saturday. They're going to need everyone they can find for that one.
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