Washington’s second-half propels them over Oregon State

The Oregon State (3-14 Pac-12 1-6) men’s team has played some of their best basketball in the past few contests but they haven’t been able to put all 40 minutes together and come away with a win. One of the hottest teams in the Pac-12 rolled into Gill Coliseum on Thursday evening, the Washington Huskies (9-7 Pac-12 4-2) had won their previous two conference matchups and were looking to make it three in a row against the Beavs.

Washington’s Head Coach Mike Hopkins was unavailable for this game being in COVID-19 protocols giving former Husky player Will Conroy his first head coaching experience.

The Beavers came into this game as slight favorites but the Huskies played inspired and was led by Pac-12’s leading scorer Terrell Brown Jr.

Brown finished with 27 points on the night for Washington as Dashawn Davis led the Beavers with 17 points but the Huskies came away with the 82-72 win.

The last game against UCLA wasn’t one the Beaver big men Roman Silva and Warith Alatishe will put on their highlight real as both only combined for six points.

To start the evening against Washington, Silva scored the first five Oregon State points as Alatishe led the team in scoring at the end of the first half with eight points.

The Beavers took the lead early in the first half as Silva and Alatishe scored nine out of Oregon State’s first 11 points as the home team had the lead in the opening eight minutes of the game 11-9 over the Huskies. Jarod Lucas and Maurice Callo made three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to hold Oregon State’s lead at 19-17 with nearly eight minutes left in the first half. Oregon State’s next points came nearly two minutes later with Xzavier Malone-Key’s made layup continuing the back and forth theme between the two teams all half long.

Malone-Key assisted Alatishe on a layup to give the Beavers the 25-22 with four minutes left. The Huskies responded with a mini 5-0 run with Brown getting three points the old-fashioned way and Emmitt Matthews making a pair of free throws to give Washington the 27-25 lead.

As the end of the half was drawing near OSU’s Glenn Taylor and Dexter Akanno both converted on and 1 opportunities to give the Beavers a five-point lead with just over a minute left in the half 34-29.

Washington made five free throws to cut the home team’s lead down to two at the end of the half and Oregon State held a tight 38-36 lead at halftime.

Brown scored the first points to open the second half for Washington to tie the game back at 38. Alatishe and Silva kept rolling to start the second half when both combined for the next five Oregon State points and the Beavers having a 43-42 lead in the first three minutes of the half. Brown started to heat up offensively getting a layup in transition and grabbing the lead back for Washington 44-43. The Huskies grew the lead to the largest of the game after another made Brown layup gave Washington a 52-45 with just over 12 minutes to go in the second half.

Washington’s zone defense ratcheted up another level and slowed down the Beaver offense in the half as a Daejon Davis steal and dunk followed by a Jamal Bey three opened the lead to 10 at 60-50 for the Huskies.

Davis kept the Beavers in the game scoring a floater in the key quickly followed by a steal and dunk to trim the lead down to seven with 7:13 to go in the game and Washington leading 65-58. Oregon State was unable to shift the momentum back their way in the second half after back-to-back buckets from Brown held the Washington lead.

The Beavers whittled the lead down to five with 1:49 left in the game after Davis was fouled on a made jumper but not able to make the free throw.

Washington’s PJ Fuller drilled a corner three on the next Huskies possession to end the Beavers hope for a comeback bid. The Huskies were able to polish off the Beavers making their free throws down the stretch and coming away with their third conference win in a row.

Oregon State is still looking for its first conference win since defeating Utah on Dec. 30 and will have to wait a little longer after Washington State entered COVID protocols. The Beavers’ next game is against the other school in Oregon next Saturday, Jan. 29 on the road on ESPN 2 at 7 p.m.