Washington stomps horned frogs

SEATTLE – How thoroughly did the Washington Huskies dominate the visiting TCU Horned Frogs on Tuesday night?

Consider the following first-half sequence:

After senior guard Andrew Andrews netted a 3-pointer late in the first half, Matisse Thybulle stole the inbounds pass and dished to Donaven Dorsey for an easy layup. The announced crowd of 5,651 enjoyed this. But they cheered even louder when Thybulle thieved yet another pass in the backcourt just seconds later, and it seemed the Hec Edmundson Pavilion rafters might combust when the ball wound up again in Andrews’ hands, and he again hoisted a 3-pointer, and the ball again splashed through the net after bouncing high off the back iron.

That frantic, eight-point burst, accomplished in a span of 26 seconds, provided a snapshot of the havoc UW exerted upon its overmatched opponent. The Huskies slapped away entry passes, forced turnovers, shot well from outside and dunked a bunch of times, and so they won 92-67 against the only nonconference Power 5 team that will visit Hec Ed this season.

The Horned Frogs (4-4), playing without two key players due to injury, simply had little chance against the athletically superior Huskies. Washington led 18-6 after the game’s first 8 minutes – it held TCU scoreless for 5 1/2 minutes during that run – and finished the first half on a 26-4 run to lead 57-23 at halftime.

The numbers were staggering: the Huskies forced 17 TCU turnovers in the first half, 11 of them steals. They outrebounded the Horned Frogs 24-6 in the first half. They shot 48.4 percent from the floor and made 11 of their 24 3-point attempts – numbers deflated a bit by a flurry of second-half misses by UW’s bench players. The Huskies made 61.8 percent of their field-goal attempts before halftime.

Andrews, the Pac-12’s leading scorer, led UW with 32 points, made 6-of-6 from 3-point range and added five assists and four steals. Freshman forward Noah Dickerson (11 points, three steals), freshman guard David Crisp (11 points, two steals) and sophomore guard Donaven Dorsey (10 points) joined Andrews in double-figures, and freshman guard Dejounte Murray had nine points, six rebounds and six assists in 27 minutes.

Washington (6-2) led by as many as 42 points in the second half, which began with an alley-oop dunk by Marquese Chriss on the Huskies’ first possession. TCU never threatened to make it interesting, and the Huskies finished the game with their deep reserves on the floor.