Inside The Huskies

Yates Is Great As Huskies Down WSU In Palouse

The 6-foot-4 guard scored 26 points and Zoom Diallo backed him with 20.
Dan Raley|
Wesley Yates III, on defense here, had 15 first-half points at WSU.
Wesley Yates III, on defense here, had 15 first-half points at WSU. | UW

Wesley Yates III spent an entire basketball season across the state at the University of Washington, when it was a Pac-12 member, but Washington State never encountered the guy because he was sidelined with a foot injury.

The Cougars know him now.

On Friday night, the 6-foot-4 sophomore guard from Beaumont, Texas, and USC transfer introduced himself to the cross-state rivals by scoring 15 of his game-high 26 points in the opening half to push the Huskies out to a big lead on the way to an 81-69 victory in Pullman.

"He was aggressive from the start," UW coach Danny Sprinkle said. "That's what he needs to be. He's a professional scorer."

Yates started next to Zoom Diallo for the first time in the Husky backcourt this season and they combined for 46 points. Diallo, another 6-foot-4 sophomore, came up with 20 points, which tied his career best scored against Rutgers last season.

The UW (3-1) trailed only in the opening minutes before Yates got going, supplying a pair of free throws and a dunk as his team went on a 12-2 tear to take control at 16-9 at seven and a half minutes into the game.

Yates had the Huskies up by 44-30 at halftime when he drained a 3-pointer right before the buzzer.

That gave him 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting, including 3 of 6 from behind the line at the beak. He finished with 9-for-16 shooting, 4 of 10 from 3-point range, and came up with 7 rebounds. Feisty, he also was called for a technical foul.

Yates had plenty of help early on as 6-foot-10 freshman Hannes Steinbach nearly had a double-double by the half, coming up with 10 points and 9 rebounds. The big German finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds, his third game in a row with a double-double.

With 6-foot-7 Indiana transfer Bryson Tucker out with a severe ankle sprain, Husky coach Danny Sprinkle opened with a three-guard lineup of Yates, Diallo and freshman JJ Mandaquit.

After taking a break, Yates didn't cool off one bit -- he just kept going. He hit a 3-pointer to open the second half, sank a pair of free throws and scored on a layin and the UW was up 55-34 just 17:54 into it.

The Cougars had one second-half run in them and cut the UW's 21-point lead to eight points on a couple of occasions inside the final five and a half minutes.

Besides Tucker, USC transfer Desmond Claude missed his fourth consecutive game as he recovers from a month-long ankle sprain.

The Huskies return to action on Tuesday night against Southern at Alaska Airlines Arena.

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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.

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