Huskies Lean on Band of Freshmen to Close Out Season

Among the University of Washington's five freshmen basketball players, Hannes Steinbach undoubtedly is down to his final handful of college games, including Saturday night's matchup against Oregon in Eugene.

JJ Mandaquit is on crutches following foot surgery while Jasir Rencher similarly is idle following a procedure to regulate an accelerated heartbeat.

Yet with the Husky roster at bare bones, fellow first-year players Courtland Muldrew and Nikola Dzepina have been given more opportunity to play -- and in Wednesday's matchup against USC, they stepped up and together put the Trojans out of their misery.

While Steinbach largely set up the outcome with a workhorse 22 points and a career-best 24 rebounds, the others emphatically closed this one out.

With the UW up by seven and the game inside its final five minutes and still in question, Muldrew and Dzepina combined for 14 of the Huskies' next 16 points to put an exclamation mark on a 91-72 victory.

"I told them one of my favorite quotes is, 'You never know what kind of horse you've got until you hook 'em up to a heavy load after the way we played last Saturday,' " UW coach Danny Sprinkle said, referencing a tepid 90-73 loss to Wisconsin. "They showed what kind of horses they were."

Niko Dzepina battles a couple of USC players for position inside. | Dave Sizer photo

Ahead 72-65 with 4:34 left, Dzepina hit a bank shot off a Muldrew pass.

Muldrew next drove hard to the basket and scored with 3:32 remaining and was fouled and converted the 3-point play.

With 3:07 to go, Muldrew did it again with another 3-point play and the Huskies all of a sudden were up 80-65.

Sophomore Zoom Diallo interrupted his teammates' dynamic duo routine with a dunk, but Dzepina next hit a 3-pointer off a pass from Muldrew and Muldrew folllowed with a lay-in and a free throw.

All that was left was for redshirt freshmann BJ Roy, the son of a Husky legend, to close out the scoring with a 3-pointer with 36 seconds left.

Muldrew's outburst of 9 points over the final minute and a half were a season high.

He also had 4 assists, 3 steals, 2 rebounds and a block, making people wonder why he hadn't previously been unleashed such as this.

Courtland Muldrew shows some emotion in his strong finishing kick against USC. | Dave Sizer photo

"Probably bad coaching on my part," Sprinkle said. "I should have been playing him over a lot of people earlier."

The 6-foot-10 Dzepina from Serbia tied his career by playing 25 minutes and looked as comfortable as he's been all season.

Niko Dzepina shows textbook shooting form against USC. | Dave Sizer photo

"He's got a chance to be a really, really good player," Sprinkle said.

So now the Huskies will further lean on their progressing freshmen Muldrew and Dzepina to close out the regular season at Oregon and then enter the Big Ten Tournament, by playing for the moment and the future.