Washington Huskies men hand Southern Utah blowout loss

By the time JJ Mandaquit stepped to the three-point line for back-to-back jumpers before halftime, the Washington men’s basketball team had taken the fight out of Southern Utah and carried a 20-point lead into the break.

The final 20 minutes, much like the first half, allowed coach Danny Sprinkle to get his first extended look at a litany of lineups for a UW team that’s as healthy as it’s been all season.

Buoyed by the return of sophomore forward Bryson Tucker and the anticipated debut of freshman forward Nikola Dzepina, Washington used a balanced scoring attack to roll over the Thunderbirds for a 105-69 win in Saturday’s nonconference clash.

“It felt amazing,” said Tucker, who scored 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting in his first outing since spraining his ankle Nov. 14 and missing the past six games. “Sitting over there all those games, it was rough. Obviously, I had to go through rehab and stuff, but it was a good welcome back.”

Hannes Steinbach and Wesley Yates III tied for team-high scoring honors with 14 points in an everyone-eats type of performance for the Huskies, who had six players score in double figures, including Mandaquit (11 points), Desmond Claude (12 points) and Zoom Diallo (10 points).

The 105 points — the most in regulation for the Huskies since they tallied 107 against Bethune-Cookman on Dec. 19, 2017 — is perhaps a sign of how explosive UW can be offensively.

“We’re still probably aways (away) honestly,” coach Danny Sprinkle said. “I wish it was a little closer. … Once we get everybody, just bring what you bring. If it’s toughness in the paint, if it’s offensive rebounding, if it’s shooting threes, that’s how we built this team and once we get everybody doing what they’re supposed to do and what they’re best at, that’s when we’re going to reach our potential.

“But from a defensive standpoint, we’re still all over the place. We have a lot of improving that we have to do, from not fouling, protecting the paint a lot more, and just some of the silly breakdowns that we have defensively, we got to clean up.”

The Huskies’ defensive shortcomings hardly mattered on a night when they committed just two turnovers and had 21 assists on 38 field goals while shooting 52.8% from the field, including 11 of 25 on three-pointers.

Leading 39-29, Washington delivered an early knockout with a 14-4 run in the final minutes of the first half.

During the decisive spurt, Tucker, who has a 40-inch vertical leap, thrilled the 5,516 at Alaska Airlines Arena with a high-flying alley-oop dunk off a nice feed from Claude.

 “The first dunk (attempt), caught me off guard a little bit because I didn’t have my legs. That’s why I couldn’t really get up,” said Tucker, who drew a foul midway in the first half after missing a two-handed jam. “But on that (second) one, it felt much better because I had my legs up under me.”

The same can be said for Mandaquit, who capped the momentum-swinging stretch with a couple of three-pointers that gave Washington a 53-33 halftime lead.

“It felt really good just because you sub into the game and make an impact right away,” said Mandaquit, who converted three of 14 three-point attempts before Saturday. “Coach always preaches sub in and make a shot.”

It was the most points in the first half for the Huskies since scoring 53 against Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 17, 2016.

Southern Utah (4-8) never got closer than 18 points the rest of the way and UW’s lead ballooned to 39 points in the final minutes.

The outcome was never in doubt in the second half, but several Husky fans remained until the end to get a glimpse of Dzepina, who made his collegiate debut with 4:41 left and took his first shot seven seconds later — an errant three-point attempt.

Minutes later, UW’s bench exploded after he canned a contested three.

The Huskies are encouraged by Dzepina’s abbreviated debut — five points on 2-for-3 shooting in four minutes — considering the 6-foot-10 post player arrived from Serbia on Sunday night and practiced with Washington for the first time during Saturday morning’s walk-through.

“He can shoot the ball at a high clip,” Tucker said. “That’s one thing we noticed. I mean, how long has he been here? Five days, probably? It was great seeing him out there. First game in college in the U.S. It was amazing seeing him out there.”

Sprinkle added: “(Dzepina) doesn’t know any of our plays yet, … but you could see how well he shoots the basketball. Offensively, he’s really, really talented and when you have a big that can stretch the floor like that, it opens up driving lanes for Zoom, driving lanes for Desmond, for JJ, for Hannes to work down low.

“They can’t double him as easy because now you have another threat from three out there. A big guy that can shoot it like him, it’s a huge weapon.”

Sprinkle emptied UW’s bench, which allowed freshman guard Courtland Muldrew to tally his first points and walk-on freshman guard BJ Roy to make his collegiate debut.

Washington (7-3, 0-1 Big Ten) plays Seattle on Friday at Climate Pledge Arena before hosting San Diego (Dec. 22) and Utah (Dec. 29).

“We have three more games before we go to that Indiana trip,” Tucker said noting games against Indiana and Purdue on Jan. 4 and 7, respectively. “It’s really time to start ramping it up because when Big Ten play starts, that’s a gauntlet.

“The only person we’re really waiting on is Jacob (Ognacevic). He’s getting back (from a foot injury). … Once we get him back, then we have all the pieces we need. Then we can start different lineups, different pieces that we put together to really get to the top.”

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