Huskies’ big men clean up glass in win
SEATTLE – Size mattered for the University of Washington men’s basketball team on Saturday night.
After toying with a new starting lineup that included interior post players Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Aziz N’Diaye alongside each other, the Huskies cleaned up on the boards and washed the University of San Francisco out of their hair by way of a 80-52 victory at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
It marked the sixth time in as many home games that UW (7-3) has beaten its opponent by 22 points or more.
“We always play our best at home; since I’ve been here, we’ve been great at home,” junior guard Isaiah Thomas said. “We were ready to go after a long week, ready to put it on somebody other than ourselves at practice.”
On this night, the Huskies came up big in more ways than one. The dual-post lineup with the 7-foot N’Diaye and the 6-9 Bryan-Amaning resulted in almost as many first-half offensive rebounds (11) as USF had on both ends of the floor (13). Bryan-Amaning had four offensive boards by halftime, while N’Diaye added a team-high nine points en route to a comfortable 39-23 lead at the half.
N’Diaye was the recipient of some nifty interior passes, helping offset an uncharacteristically poor first half of shooting from 3-point range (2 of 14). Thomas got hot from the outside at the beginning of the second half, hitting a pair of 3s to spark a 12-0 run and put the Dons (4-6) away for good.
The Huskies out-rebounded San Francisco by a 40-33 margin, validating a week of extra focus on that part of their game. Coach Lorenzo Romar was miffed about UW getting outrebounded 39-33 at Texas A&M eight days ago, and he set out to get more production on the boards.
Reserve Scott Suggs led the Huskies with 15 points on an otherwise quiet night from the UW bench. Thomas added 12 and five assists, while Bryan-Amaning had 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
The Huskies have yet to trail in the second half of a home game this season. In seven appearances at home, the latest UW has trailed a game was with 13:40 remaining in the first half of the Eastern Washington game, with the Eagles leading 13-10. The closest any visiting opponent has been in the second half was six points, by Portland earlier this month.
USF never got closer than 15 points over the final 20 minutes of Saturday night’s game. Things got so bad that the student section began a chant of “Bo-ring! Bo-ring!” with just under four minutes to go in the game – an apt description of UW second halves this season.
UW plays one more home game Wednesday night before beginning Pac-10 play in Los Angeles on Dec. 29.