Short-Handed Huskies Turn to Freshman to Avert Upset
The University of Washington basketball team was the perfect host at Alaska Airlines Arena, sitting out two starters for Friday night's game against North Florida.
Yet the Huskies were almost way too generous, struggling mightily without them and enabling the overmatched Ospreys to lead throughout much of the non-conference outing before pulling away late with a 75-67 victory.
It wasn't until 4:12 remained that the UW took the lead for good at 63-61 on Jamal Bey's 3-pointer in front of his bench and disaster soon was avoided.
The fun part of this sudden drop in manpower was freshman guard Keyon Menified was pressed into action as a starter, along with senior Cole Bajema, when Kentucky transfer Keion Brooks and WSU defector Noah Williams were ruled out of the non-conference game with injuries for the UW (2-0).
Hitting soft runners and letting fly from 3-point range, the exciting newcomer from Flint, Michigan, scored 12 of the short-handed Huskies' first 21 points, hit a cold spell but finished strong and had a memorable outing by dropping in a team-high 21 points.
In a grueling 37 minutes of action, 23 more than he played in his college devut, Menifield wound up shooting 7-for-21, but he sank 2 of 4 from 3-point range, plus chipped in 3 assists and 2 rebounds.
Oregon transfer Franck Kepnang came off the bench for the UW to supply 16 points, 11 rebounds and 2 blocks, while Bey finished with 14 points and 7 rebounds. The other emergency starter, Bajema, provided 7 points and 11 rebounds.
Brooks, a 6-foot-7 forward from the SEC powerhouse who led the Huskies with 20 points in the season opener and is expected to be their offensive go-to guy, apparently got hurt in practice, while Williams, their playmaker, was hobbled in the first half of the opener against Weber State.
As a result, the UW got a lot younger and far less prolific on offense for this game against its touring ASUN opponent, which opened the season with a 41-point loss to Gonzaga in Spokane.
Had Brooks and Williams played, the same thing might have happened.
However, the Huskies nearly met the same fate as USC, which was recently upset by the ASUN's Florida Gulf Coast 74-61.
Mike Hopkins' team had a hard time finding much offense in the absence of the others and this enabled North Florida (0-2) to lead much of the way throughout the opening half and 34-28 at the break.
Menifield scored his first bucket on a floater along the baseline, dropped in a free throw on a technical whistled for a flop, scored on clever double-clutch drive, knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key and finished his early splurge with another floater in the key for 12 points in the first 12 minutes of play.
His last score to cap that run put the Huskies ahead 21-16, but the visitors outscored them 18-5 to intermission as the game turned real sloppy.
With Brooks and Williams out, the Huskies had to dig deeper into the bench and used freshman guard Koren Johnson for the first time this season, as well as veteran forward Langston Wilson.
North Florida, led by Jarius Hicklen's 19 points, never led by more than six points but hung in there, often beating the UW inside. But it seemed inevitable the Ospreys would fall back and they did.
And a freshman from Michigan was as responsible for this as anyone.
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