UCLA Cruises to Victory Over Washington
If not for a career-tying performance by Sahvir Wheeler on Sunday against UCLA, the Washington basketball team would've been beaten at Pauley Pavillon far worse than they were.
On Sunday, the graduate point guard scored a team-high 27 points in the Huskies' 73-61 loss to the Bruins, the largest margin of defeat to date this season for the program.
As the second half clock ticked down UW (10-7 overall, 2-4 Pac-12) managed to convert just 6-of-15 shots in the final 7:27, highlighting a problem that put the game away well before the final buzzer.
Wheeler, who scored the final five points for the Huskies, had just 2 assists and 3 rebounds to go along with 6 turnovers — tying his season high — in 38 minutes.
Veteran forwards Keion Brooks Jr. and Moses Wood added 12 and 10 points, respectively, while combining to shoot 6 of 17 from the floor in defeat.
Without a number of starters having trouble finding the bottom of the basket, UW coach Mike Hopkins saw the problem compounded by a lack of scoring off the bench.
Sophomore guard Koren Johnson adding 6 points in 18 minutes and junior forward Wilhelm Breidenbach scored 2 points in 16 minutes. The Husky bench shot 3 for 16, a recipe for disaster when all but one starter couldn't score.
The Huskies tried to live by the 3 early and ended up making 5-of-23 shots from deep, including 1 of 10 in the first half.
UW entered halftime down 30-22 after trailing by as many as 13 points with under four minutes remaining in the half.
Wood got the Huskies going coming out of the break with his first of two 3-pointers and added a pair from the free-throw line. Brooks put a pair in from the line soon after to cut the UW deficit to 34-29 with 16:04 remaining.
No one could do much to slow down a strong Bruins squad that shot 56 percent (13-of-23) in the second half. It didn't help the UW cause that the team finished with 19 turnovers, tied for a season-high after having the same number against Gonzaga back in December.
With the 12-point victory, UCLA has now won its last nine games against UW. The last time coach a Hopkins team beat the Bruins was a 69-55 victory at Alaska Airlines Arena in February 2019..
Washington continues its three-game road trip on Thursday at California.
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