Washington’s apocalypse of sprained ankles threatened to keep them from defending their Acrisure Holiday Classic title. With forwards Bryson Tucker and Hannes Steinbach already out due to sprained ankles (in addition to longer term injuries to Mady Traore and Jacob Ognacevic), Coach Sprinkle revealed on Monday that Lathan Sommerville had rolled his ankle in practice this past weekend which opened the possibility that Franck Kepnang would be the only player over 6’6 available on the roster. Sommerville though ended up playing while Nevada suffered an injury to their starting center which allowed Washington’s 4-guard lineup to persevere in an 83-66 win over the Wolfpack to move to 5-1 on the season; the first win over Nevada in the last 7 tries for the Huskies.
Both teams started off slowly in this one which was encapsulated primarily by each team committing a turnover by not being able to inbound the ball within 5 seconds within the first 7 minutes of the game. A Zoom Diallo 3-pointer put the Dawgs up 7-5 and it stayed that way for a while before Nevada eventually managed a 6-point possession thanks to a made 3-pointer plus a flagrant foul against Franck Kepnang on the box out attempt.
That gave Nevada an 11-9 lead which was also to be their last of the game. The teams ended up tied at 20-20 on a Chuck Bailey III three-pointer before Wesley Yates III answered with a three of his own and Nevada never got closer than that the rest of the way. Washington had a chance to stretch out the lead before halftime but missed 3 shots over the final minute with a few offensive rebounds on the way to take a 34-28 advantage into the break. Neither team shot better than 37% from the field in the first period and the Huskies committed 7 turnovers in the first 10 minutes. Zoom Diallo was the lone bright spot and at one point had outscored Nevada on his own by a count of 12-11.
The worry coming into the game was that Washington’s front court would be overmatched with the numbers disadvantage but Franck Kepnang took over to start the 2nd half and had the Dawgs’ first 5 points in the first 2+ minutes of the half. The Huskies were helped by Nevada’s starting center suffering an injury in the first 10 minutes which combined with Sommerville actually playing meant both teams had similar frontcourt depth.
A Wesley Yates III three-pointer pushed the Husky lead to double digits at 48-36 but Nevada put together a couple productive possessions in a row to cut it to single digits and looked to recapture the momentum. That was short-lived however as Franck Kepnang had a hammer dunk in the paint and a quick steal turned into a a Quimari Peterson layup to push the lead back out to 12.
Nevada never managed to cut the lead down to single digits the rest of the way and a Wesley Yates III 8-0 run by himself pushed the lead out from 59-48 to 67-48 over the course of 90 seconds and put the game entirely out of reach before an 83-66 final.
Wesley Yates III shook off a slow start from the field to finish with a game high 25 points, his 3rd straight with at least 23, thanks to 11/13 shooting from the free throw line. Franck Kepnang mostly avoided foul trouble and finished with a season-high 15 points to go along with 5 rebounds and 4 blocks. Zoom Diallo did most of his damage in the 1st half and finished with 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists on 5/9 shooting.
Struggling from the field were Desmond Claude (1/9 FG, 2 pts) and Lathan Sommerville (0/6 FG, 1/4 FT). Although Claude somehow finished with a team-high plus-minus of +27 and Sommerville had a team-high 8 rebounds.
The Huskies will take on Colorado (who beat San Francisco by 10 in their first round matchup) at 1:30p tomorrow on CBS Sports Network to determine the tournament title.