Huskies Win Big Ten Warm-Up Against Utah

It was a Pac-12 throwback game between the University of Washington and Utah basketball teams, a match-up that intrigued locals to the point they filled most of the seats in Alaska Airlines Arena, on a Monday night at that.

Yet all niceties ended halfway through this reunion encounter as the Huskies, dressed in their all-lavender uniforms for the first time at home, pulled away in the second half for a 74-65 victory.

This was the first meeting between these teams since they left for other conferences that begin with Big -- as in Ten and 12.

The UW (9-4 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) played without starting guard Welsey Yates III and reserve forward Lathan Sommerville for the second consecutive game -- and it looked like both of them are going to be out for some time.

Yates wore a heavy wrap on his right hand after having surgery and his return is unknown, with the sophomore possibly out for the season. Sommerville, who has a knee injury, wasn't in the arena, but didn't suffer any structural damage.

Hannes Steinbach slips a shot past Utah's James Okonkwo. | Dave Sizer photo

Just five players scored for the Huskies, with three of them -- Zoom Diallo, Desmond Claude and Hannes Steinbach -- supplying all but nine of the points.

Diallo led all scorers with 24 points, while Claude chipped in 21 and Steinbach provided 20 points and 11 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season.

"It was a good test to see what we're made of," Steinbach said.

This proved to be a most productive warm-up outing for the Huskies who go on the road to open Big Ten play on Sunday at Indiana (10-3, 1-1) and at Purdue (12-1, 2-0) on Jan. 7 in before returning home.

"It's going to get harder," coach Danny Sprinkle said.

Right from the start, this was a tough-nosed game with the Huskies holding a slight edge for the first 10 minutes of play while the Utes (8-5) led 37-36 at halftime.

Early on, the Huskies simply couldn't hang with Utah's Terrence Brown, a spindly 6-foot-3 junior who came in averaging 21.5 per game and had 17 by the break. He stepped around defenders or came to a hard stop for pull-up jumpers.

Brown, who led Farleigh-Dickinson in scoring the year before, did it the old-fashioned way by dropping in 8 of 19 shots for the game, with none of it coming from 3-point range. He had 9 of his team's final 12 points to close the half and erase a 27-25 deficit. He finished with 21.

Zoom Diallo lobs a pass over the Utah defense. | Dave Sizer photo

The Huskies took control of this one right after intermission by outscoring Utah 9-1 over the first four minutes. Steinbach had four of the points in this surge on a baseline dunk off a feed from fellow big man Franck Kepnang and shot inside off a pass from fellow freshman JJ Mandaquit.

It was then just a matter of how much the UW was going to win by as the Huskies pulled in front by as many as nine with 8:18 left to play when Steinbach converted a pair of free throws.

Utah wouldn't give in and trailed just 66-63 with 3:06 left to play, but Diallo hit a jumper from the top of the key and a lay-in to put his team safely in front.

"I know what I'm going to get out of Zoom," Sprinkle said.

The Huskies have six days to travel and prepare for Indiana and a 5 p.m. PT game on the weekend.

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