The Washington Huskies sliced an 18-point, second-half deficit to five, but could not contain taller, older, home-standing San Diego State in a second-round in NIT game Monday, losing 93-78 (box) to end their year at 19-15.
A season that began with a surprising win in Shanghai over a Texas team that was a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament, ended with a desultory loss that did not come in the Big Dance, which the Huskies have missed five consecutive years.
The Aztecs, three-time defending Mountain West Conference regular-season champions, average only 68 points a game. But against a kitten-soft defense minus Noah Dickerson, not on the trip after being suspended for the game for a violation of team rules, the Aztecs raced to a season high in points — a stark contrast to the teams’ last meeting 15 months ago at Hed Ed, when the Huskies won 49-36.
Senior Andrew Andrews passed Jon Brockman to become the third-leading scorer in UW history, finishing with 17 points while missing 9 of 13 shots in his final Huskies game. Dejounte Murray led Washington with 20 after missing his first seven shots. Fellow frosh Marquese Chriss had 19 before fouling out. Both are NBA prospects who may have played their last for Washington as well.
The Huskies were at their athletic best during a 13-0 run that cut the gap to 69-64 inside eight minutes. But the Aztecs, who extended their home record to to 119-12 over the past seven years at Viejas Arena, quickly forced several UW turnovers to blunt momentum.
San Diego State (27-9) led the nation in field goal defense (36.9 percent), and the Huskies saw why, shooting 38.2 percent and missing 11 of 15 threes.
Winston Shepard led the Aztecs, who were in the NCAA field the past six years in a row, with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="2216515 https://sportspressnw.wpengine.com/?p=2216515">6 Comments
Another no D, crappy game to end a crappy season of No D, no Passing, No Rebounding. Typical, ALL O Romar team.
I would think the rest of the athletic depts’ head coaches would look at this miserable record and scratch their heads, knowing they would be gone if their teams performed so poorly.
Woodward was a very good AD, replacing under performers and bringing in winning coaches, but for some reason, maybe higher ups, he never pulled the trigger on Romar.
I say give some of that salary to the likes of the crew coach, softball coach, volleyball coach, etc, ALL the coaches who have nationally ranked teams.
This team plays zero defense. Switching everything when in man, is a cop out, and a lazy way to coach. with the athletes we have, should be a lot better than this. Can’t use the excuse that there are mostly freshman at this time of year. One more year for Romar, if the Dawgs don’t make the NCAA tourney, he should be canned.
NBA talent but again a romar team with early exit from the jv tourney