C.J. Wilcox broke out of a two-week slump by leading a half-dozen Huskies in double figures as Washington raced away to an 11-point halftime lead, stretched that to 25 and finished with an 86-62 smackdown of Oregon State Saturday at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis.
UW’s victory was just its third on the road this season and first since opening the Pac-12 slate at Arizona State. Washington (15-13, 7-8) swept Oregon State (14-12, 6-8) and snapped a seven-game road losing streak. The Huskies’ final three conference games are at home, starting with Washington State Friday and finishing with UCLA and USC the following week.
Wilcox drained 10 of 16 shots, including 3 of 7 from 3-point range and finished with 23 points. He surpassed Jon Brockman to become the second-leading scorer in school history. Wilcox has 1,814 points, Brockman had 1,805.
Five others reached double figures. Andrew Andrews had 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists; Nigel Williams-Goss 14 points and a career-high 10 assists; Perris Blackwell 12 points (off the bench) and eight rebounds; Desmond Simmons 10 points and 11 rebounds; and Shawn Kemp Jr. 10 points in 12 foul-plagued minutes.
This marked the first time since Feb. 2, 2013 in a 96-92 win over Arizona State that six UW players finished in double figures.
Washington shot 57.4 percent and outrebounded the Beavers 43-23. The Huskies also committed just 11 turnovers. Washington’s two primary ballhandlers, Andrews and Williams-Goss, collaborated for 15 assists and only four turnovers in one of UW’s most dominating performances of the season.
“Man, it felt good. It felt really good to get this one,” said Williams-Goss, who delivered his eighth consecutive double-figure game. “We were scoring really well the whole game. Offense wasn’t our concern. We needed to turn up our defense and rebound the ball, and we got it done. The ball was touching everyone’s hands and when you do that we’re pretty tough to guard. It may not seem like a lot, but winning here was everything to us. We wanted to come out and make this our best performance, and it ranks right up there.
“We are going to try to keep better each and every day and we’ll have a chance in the Pac-12 Tournament. If we can stay consistent, it will give us a really good chance in the tournament.”
Washington trailed by six at 9:19 of the first half but went on an 11-0 run to lead 30-26. After padding its lead to 11 at the half, Washington went ahead 59-40 at 15:42. At that point, Oregon went on a 7-0 run and it appeared the Huskies would gag on yet another second-half lead.
But Andrews nailed a 3-pointer at 12:25 to boost UW’s margin to 64-49. At that point, the Beavers, led by Roberto Nelson’s 17 points, folded shop.
“I wouldn’t have predicted this,” said head coach Lorenzo Romar. “But I’ve said all along that if we played right we could be competitive with anyone. This was a team effort, we just did so many things right, and it was good to see. The way we played tonight is the kind of game we can play against anyone.
“A lot of guys stepped up for us, C.J. bounced back and also played great defense on Nelson, Andrews and Nigel did a marvelous job of running the team. So many people played a part.”
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="2179681 https://sportspressnw.wpengine.com/?p=2179681">1 Comment
Obviously a great game for the Dawgs and they overcame what contributed to their recent losses. I’m wondering if Craig Robinson is on the hot seat in Corvallis though. I think he’s a solid coach but it doesn’t seem to be happening under his watch.