Inside The Huskies

Husky Hoop Team Has Easy Time of It Against Southern Utah

The UW welcomed back Bryson Tucker, who had missed six games with an injury.
Dan Raley|
Desmond Claude surveys the floor at Alaska Airlines Arena.
Desmond Claude surveys the floor at Alaska Airlines Arena. | Dave Sizer photo

While the University of Washington team was warming up for the LA Bowl in Los Angeles, the Husky basketball team had the campus all to itself on Saturday afternoon and finished off Southern Utah 105-69 at Alaska Airlines Arena.

The basketball game ended in Seattle just a few minutes before kickoff in Los Angeles.

Besides coming up with an expected lopsided victory, the Huskies (7-3 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) used this weekend workout to welcome back sophomore forward Bryson Tucker from an ankle injury that made him miss six games and introduce newly arrived Serbian forward Nikola Dzepina to his first Montlake game experience.

Tucker, a 6-foot-7 Indiana transfer, immediately made his presence felt by becoming one of three Huskies to score a team-leading 8 points to help build a 20-point halftime lead and sail past Southern Utah (4-8 overall, 0-0 WAC). He had 12 points in his return.

In the United States for the first time, the 6-foot-11 Dzepina was inserted in the second half and hit a 3-pointer for his first Husky points with 1:51 left to play to put the UW ahead by 39. He finished with 5 points in his debut.

Coach Danny Sprinkle used 13 players and everyone except Brandon Roy Jr. made it into the scoring column.

Freshman forward Hannes Steinbach and sophomore guard Wesley Yates III topped the Huskies with 14 points each and were two of the team's six double-figure scorers.

Playing just 18 minutes, the 6-foot-11 Steinbach was his usual efficient self, connecting on 7 of 9 shots.

The Huskies trailed only once in this one, at 9-8 at 15:33 when Tanner Hayhurst dropped in a 3-pointer for Southern Utah.

However, the home team next rattled off 10 unanswered points to reclaim the lead and make things uncomfortable for the WAC team.

Leading just 38-29 with 6:06 remaining in the opening half, the UW had another run in it to pretty much put this one away. Sprinkles guys outscored the Thundrebirds 15-4 to close out the half and head for the locker room with a 53-33 advantage.

The 53 points were the most in a first half for a Husky basketball team since it scored that many against Cal State-Fullerton on November 17, 2016.

The UW now takes the next six days off before meeting Seattle University (7-2) next Friday night in a late one at Climate Pledge Arena downtown. The game, advertised as "the Battle for Seattle," tips off at 8:30 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN2.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Published | Modified
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Basketball