Andrews Clutch as Huskies beat WSU in Pullman
|Andrew Andrews hit 4 free throws in the final 23 seconds and C.J. Wilcox had 18 points to lead the Huskies (9-5, 1-0) to a 68-63 victory over the Washington State Cougars (9-5, 0-1). Brock Motum had 15 points and Mike Ladd had 16 in the losing effort for WSU.
The first half for the Huskies was a dream start as they started out on a 9-0 run the first 5 minutes. They continued that run and got out to their biggest lead 23-6 with about 9 minutes left in the first half following an Aziz N’Diaye lay in. But WSU started it long road to get back in the game. They hung around but outscored the Huskies 21-7 the final 9 minutes to cut the lead to 34-27 at halftime.
The second half started out as a back and forth battle as the Cougs cut the lead to 3, but the Huskies answer with a 7-0 run to take it back out 10 with 15 and a half to go in the game. Back forth it went until WSU finally took the lead following Brock Motum three with 7:21 to go to give WSU a 51-50 lead ending a WSU 9-2 run. WSU got the lead up to 4 at 56-52 with 5:44, but the Huskies hung around. The Huskies took the lead for good after a Scott Suggs jumper gave the Huskies a 62-61 lead. The Cougs kept coming though cutting the lead to 64-63 with 40 seconds left, but Andrew Andrews scored 4 of his 8 points from the line leading the Huskies to a 68-63 victory.
This was a good win for UW, but any win at this point in this point in the season is good. A win, on the road, in Pullman versus your in-state rival to open up Pac-12 play is great. This win is a good springboard win going in to Thursday going into Cal and Stanford this upcoming weekend. If the Huskies can split or even sweep the Bay Area schools that will put them in the heart of the Pac-12 race early in the season with all their Pac-12 home games left. Good win tonight Dawgs and GO HAWKS tomorrow!