Huskies Snap Out of Doldrums to Muscle Way Past Eastern

No-Longer-Going-South Washington faced Eastern Washington and the Huskies held the geographical upper hand on Tuesday night at Alaska Airlines Arena, getting pointed in the right direction with an easy 87-69 victory.

Three days after an extra lackluster home loss to USC, Danny Sprinkle's team (7-3 overall, 0-2 Big Ten) regrouped and beat up on another lower-level opponent in Eastern (2-9), looking better yet hardly like a powerhouse.

There's still no telling how much damage the weekend's 25-point setback to the Trojans did for Seattle basketball fans discovering and caring about this group -- because the crowd for this one was as sparse as any in recent seasons.

Sprinkle, no happier than anyone over the recent turn of events, promised changes against the visitors from the other side of the state and there wasn't anything real earth-shaking until five minutes were played.

With the UW coming out of a timeout and up 10-8, the first-year Husky basketball coach pulled a Jedd Fisch move with an eye on the future with his lineup -- he put three freshman on the floor together in first-year guards Zoom Diallo and Jase Butler, along with redshirt freshman forward Christian King.

He kept this fresh-faced trio on the floor together for just over three minutes to see how it responded. King hit a 3-pointer and Diallo dropped in a pair of free throws while Butler knocked down a 3-pointer, and the Huskies gradually began to pull away at 20-15.

"They've earned it," Sprinkle said. "They're practicing hard, too. When they go into games, stuff happens. When Christian gets in the game, he's making shots. When Jase goes in, he's playing hard and he's making shots. At this level, I don't care if you're a senior. If you're not producing, I've got to find somebody else who's going to produce."

Diallo had 10 of his 14 points by intermission, hitting all four of his shots from the floor and both free throws he attempted, as the UW built a 39-32 advantage at the break. He would finish perfect on six shot attempts. King came up with a career-best 9 points.

Another move the coach made was to restore Rice transfer and junior guard Mekhi Mason to the starting lineup -- and he responded with a season-high 23 points on 7-for-11 shooting, and, more importantly, 5 of 7 from behind the 3-point line. His previous best for the Huskies was 15 points against USC.

"Honestly I feel like I'm getting more acclimated," said Mason, who's gone for the ACC to the Big Ten. "Playing at a higher level, it takes some adjustment. I just feel I've gotten more comfortable, not learning the offense but figuring out my spots."

This opened up the key for 6-foot-8 UW power forward Great Osobor to do pretty much what he wanted inside and he scored 16 points, dropping in 8 of 12 shot attempts, while fellow 6-foot-8 forward Tyler Harris chipped in 15 points.

It took the home team just over four minutes into the next half to move in front by double figures for the first time, with Diallo's shot inside putting his side up 51-41.

Realizing he has to squeeze a lot more out of a decidedly unresponsive roster at times, Sprinkle says he's challenged players such as Mason to step up their play now 10 games into the season.

"I would say it was our energy," Diallo said. "I feel like we were energetic on every play we did and it looked like we were having fun out there. I think that's what separated us in what we did today."

The Huskies now take more than a week off because its finals week before they return on Dec. 18 to host Washington State (8-2), which earlier roughed up Eastern 96-81 last month in Spokane.

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