Huskies Will Meet Utah in Pac-12 Tourney Opener in Rubber Match

The teams split a pair of games during the regular season, winning their home outings.

Weighted down by a humbling 5-20 season, the University of Washington basketball team will open the Pac-12 tournament on Wednesday against Utah, one of the few teams it beat during the regular season.

The teams will tip off at 4 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and Pac-12 Networks will broadcast the game.

Six weeks ago, the Huskies edged Utah 83-79 in Seattle when junior guard Jamal Bey sank 10 of 11 shots, including all 4 he attempted from 3-point range, and he finished with a career-best 28 points. 

Early in the year, the Utes behind senior guard Alfonso Plummer's 21 points opened their season with a 76-62 victory over the UW in Salt Lake City, leaving Mike Hopkins' team at 0-3.

The 11th-seeded Huskies enter the Pac-12 tournament with a three-game losing streak against the Arizona schools, while No. 8 Utah (11-12 overall, 8-11 Pac-12) comes off a decisive 98-59 win over Arizona State at home to close the regular season, which was preceded two games earlier by a 71-61 home win over 21-6 USC.

If they bow out in the first round in Vegas, these Huskies will finish tied with Bob Bender's 1993-94 team (5-22) for the program's least amount of victories a season in 103 seasons — since Claude Hunt's 1917-18 Huskies went 4-8.

Mike Hopkins' team will have had 11 days off after closing out the regular season with a 75-74 defeat at Arizona. 

Utah is one of the league's younger and taller teams, led by junior swingman Timmy Allen, an Arizona native who averages 16.8 points, 6 rebounds and 3.9 assists per outing.

At Utah 76, UW 62

In December, the Huskies hung close for a half before letting things slip away, with Hopkins' team showing early clues that this was going to be a season of struggle. Sophomore guard RaeQuan Battle went 1-for-8 from 3 point range. Senior guard Quade Green led the UW with 21 points. If there was a positive, this marked the only game this season that the Huskies had a pair of double-figure rebounders: sophomore Nate Roberts with 13 and senior Hameir Wright had 10. Still, the Huskies lost the overall rebound battle, 44-43. 

At UW 83, Utah 79

On a Sunday afternoon, the UW overcame a 44-41 halftime deficit by relying on its perimeter game and a couple of late defensive stops. Bey came up with his 28, followed by Green's 20 and junior Erik Stevenson's 18. This marked the only time Hopkins' team had two 20-point scorers in a game all season. The Huskies, winning just their third game of the season in 14 tries, shot 50 percent from the floor (29-57) and 3-point range (12-24). Bey also had four steals, including one late.

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