Huskies Take Advantage of Temper Tantrum, Top Northwestern

The Northwestern shot went up and missed, things got a tad physical inside on the rebound and Wildcats basketball coach Chris Collins strongly objected to the rough play that wasn't penalized. Now whistles started blowing, off key but repeatedly.

Collins said something to an official, drew a response he didn't like, got real red in the face and charged at the guy in the striped shirt, with his assistant coaches trying their best to intervene.

By the time everything was diffused, with 3:28 left in the opening half of Saturday night's Washington-Northwestern game, Collins purposefully strode off the court to a cascading chorus of boos at Alaska Airlines Arena, ejected after drawing a pair of technical fouls.

"It was interesting," UW guard DJ Davis said.

On an evening of sloppy basketball at times, leave it to a coach to go bonkers to liven up things in a game the Huskies won 76-71, but made it a lot harder than they should have.

"They deserved to win a game like this," UW coach Danny Sprinkle said of his guys. "We made the plays."

Great Osobor's three-point play, following up his own miss and adding a free throw, gave the UW the lead for good at 68-66 with 1:55 left to play.

For the second outing in a row, 6-foot-8 sophomore forward Tyler Harris topped the Huskies in scoring, following up his 23 points against Nebraska with 18 against Northwestern. The Wildcats' Nick Martinelli, a 6-foot-7 junior forward, led all scorers with 23.

For the first time in a month, Sprinkle's team (12-11 overall, 3-9 conference) lifted itself out of last place in the Big Ten standings, bypassing Penn State (13-11, 3-10), a 78-54 loser to UCLA earlier in the day in Los Angeles.

Give Collins an assist for helping make the Huskies the 17th-place entry in the 18-team standings. They still need to elevate to 15th or better to get into the Big Ten Tournament in March.

"I've never been kicked out yet," Sprinkle said, tapping the table to simulate knocking on wood. "But I understand any coach that does. I've never been kicked out, but I know how into the game you can get and how emotional you can be as a coach to where it can happen."

The UW was leading just 28-22 when the Northwestern coach lost his composure, with his double T providing the home team with four free throws, all of which Davis converted for a 10-point bulge and eventually a 39-30 halftime edge.

"It changed the momentum kind of," Davis said. "We were happy we were able to hit the free throws."

Otherwise, both teams struggled to find much of a rhythm, with ball movement extra stiff at times and the Huskies guilty of a lot of turnovers, 16 when it was over.

Sprinkle's team crept out to a 47-33 lead early in the second half, when Osobor, who had 16 points, flipped in a shot from beneath the rim and was bumped, converting a three-point play.

However, the Huskies nearly squandered the Collins gift that kept on giving free throws by first hitting a lull and getting outscored 11-0 to watch their lead suddenly dwindle to 49-46 at the 13:12 mark of the second half.

The UW bumped its advantage back up to seven on Franck Kepnang's pair of free throws and Harris' rebound put-back.

Yet Penn State, coach or no coach, had another run in it, outscoring the home team 9-2 to tie the game at 55, with Joran Clayton's 3-pointer knotting the score with 7:47 remaining.

Northwestern wasn't done. Trailing 62-59, the Wildcats went on a 7-0 rush to take a 66-62 lead with 3:41 on the clock.

However, the visitors had no more coach-less heroics left in them. They certainly would have liked those four free throws back, all of which came compliments of Collins' great displeasure, and were nearly the difference in the game.

The Huskies next will prepare for another deep dive into Big Ten country, playing at Ohio State (14-9, 6-6) on Wednesday and at Penn State on Saturday morning.

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