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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huskies hold off Pacific

Kemp scores 18 points in balanced attack

Associated Press

SEATTLE – Washington coach Lorenzo Romar has a simple goal for forward Shawn Kemp Jr. this senior season with the Huskies.

Consistency.

“Consistency is the thing we’ve talked with Shawn for three years. This is the most consistent he has been,” said Romar, who watched Kemp score a team-high 18 points in leading the Huskies to a 76-69 victory over Pacific in the first game of the Marv Harshman Classic at KeyArena on Sunday night.

Kemp made 7 of 11 from the floor and all four of his free throws. He has led the Huskies (3-0) in scoring for all three games this season and is averaging a team-high 15.7 points overall.

The son of former NBA star Shawn Kemp Sr. averaged 4.4 points a year ago.

Nigel Williams-Goss and Andrew Andrews each added 17 points for the Huskies.

T.J. Wallace led the Tigers (2-2) with game-high 24 points and had 10 rebounds.

“He has been consistently bringing it since the first day of practice,” Romar said of Kemp. “He competes as hard as he can. He runs that floor every time. He’s dialed in every practice. So there is consistency. In the past, maybe it was his injuries or his confidence wasn’t there, he just wasn’t as dialed in as he’s been this year.”

Romar was concerned that his team showed so much inconsistency against the Tigers. UW led 14-3 at the 14-minute mark then allowed the Tigers (2-2) to make it a tight game after that. The Tigers jumped ahead briefly, 16-14, midway through the first half.

“That was not our team out there tonight, except for the first 6 minutes,” Romar said. “It was almost as if we were bored with success at that point. As the game went on, we made mistakes there with more breakdowns.”

Opening the second half, the Huskies came out on a 15-7 run, stretching the lead to 51-36 with under 14 minutes left.

Montana 66, Seattle 62: The Grizzlies (1-2) closed with a 10-2 run that gave them a win over the Redhawks (1-2) in the nightcap at KeyArena.