annes Steinbach dominated on the inside once again and Wesley Yates III broke out of a three-point shooting slump to lead the Washington men’s basketball team to a 79-72 victory at Rutgers on Tuesday night.
“Awesome team win,” coach Danny Sprinkle said during a postgame radio interview. “I’m so proud of these guys. The fight after the tough loss, they came together. This had nothing to do with coaching. I wish I could take credit for it. This had zero to do with it. … We had so many great performances.”
Steinbach led the way with 24 points on 9-for-13 shooting from the field and 16 rebounds — both game highs — while Yates added 19 points on 3-for-7 shooting behind the arc and a career-high seven assists.
Zoom Diallo chipped in 10 points and a personal-best seven rebounds and Quimari Peterson had 10 points for the Huskies who hung on in the final minutes for a win that had postseason ramifications.
With three regular-season games left, Washington improved to 14-14 and is 13th in the Big Ten at 6-11. The Huskies are close to clinching a top-14 finish in the conference, which guarantees a first-round bye in the Big Ten tournament that starts March 10 in Chicago.
“It’s huge because they would have jumped us in the standings,” Sprinkle said. “We both would have had five wins (in the conference) and they would have had the win over us.”
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Washington was hoping to sweep its final East Coast road trip, but had to settle for a split following a 64-60 upset loss at Maryland on Saturday.
For the first time in program history, the Huskies played at Jersey Mike’s Arena in front of 8,000 and visited Piscataway, N.J, which was hit hard by a record-breaking blizzard that reportedly dumped more than three feet of snow across the region.
Washington rolled out its 11th different starting lineup because sixth-year center Franck Kepnang, who has been dealing with a lower-body injury, sat out and missed his first game of the season.
Without the 6-foot-11 defensive standout who is third in the Big Ten in blocks (2.1 per game), former Rutgers center Lathan Sommerville made his second start of the season and finished with eight points before fouling out against his old team.
Washington took control early and went up 21-9 after freshman guard Courtland Muldrew canned a three-pointer. The Huskies maintained momentum and pulled ahead 36-22 when seldom-used freshman forward Nikola Dzepina dropped another three with 3:08 left in the first half.
Before the break, UW allowed a 7-0 run and led 36-29 at halftime.
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The Scarlet Knights closed to 45-40 early in the second half when Sommerville scored four straight points on two free throws and a dunk to start an 8-0 run that ended with Yates’ steal and a highlight fast-break dunk for a 53-40 lead.
Minutes later, Yates, who had connected on 7 of 30 three-point attempts in the past four games and just 3 of 12 in his last outing, drained back-to-back threes, which seemed to be the knockout blows for the Huskies who led 63-45 with 9:17 left.
However, UW’s comfortable lead dwindled to 73-68 in the final two minutes when Rutgers drew a slew of fouls for easy buckets while the clock stopped. The Knights connected on 23 of 32 free throws while the Huskies were 16 of 21.
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Needing a basket, Steinbach sank a contested mid-range jumper that beat the shot-clock buzzer and Yates drove for a difficult layup to stretch UW’s lead to 77-68 with 42 seconds left.
“We had some really sloppy turnovers where they were stealing outlet (passes),” Sprinkle said. “The game should have been over before that and it’s stuff we got to learn from.
“For us to have 24 fouls and them 17 when we had the lead most of the game and they’re trying to foul? I don’t know, but I’m just super proud of these guys and our effort.”
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Lino Mark scored 18 points, Darren Buchanan Jr. 17 and Tariq Francis 14 for Rutgers (11-17, 4-13), which shot 39.7% from the field, including 3 of 14 on three-pointers.
Washington converted 50% of its field goals, including 7 of 19 behind the arc. UW also had more rebounds (34 to 29), assists (15 to 10) and points in the paint (40 to 24).
The Huskies return home to face Wisconsin (19-8, 11-5) on Saturday and host USC (18-9, 7-9) on March 4 before their regular-season finale at Oregon (10-17, 3-13) on March 7.
BOX SCORE
Percy Allen: pallen@seattletimes.com. Percy Allen is a sports reporter for The Seattle Times, where he writes about the University of Washington Huskies men’s and women’s basketball teams and the Seattle Storm.
“Awesome team win,” coach Danny Sprinkle said during a postgame radio interview. “I’m so proud of these guys. The fight after the tough loss, they came together. This had nothing to do with coaching. I wish I could take credit for it. This had zero to do with it. … We had so many great performances.”
Steinbach led the way with 24 points on 9-for-13 shooting from the field and 16 rebounds — both game highs — while Yates added 19 points on 3-for-7 shooting behind the arc and a career-high seven assists.
Zoom Diallo chipped in 10 points and a personal-best seven rebounds and Quimari Peterson had 10 points for the Huskies who hung on in the final minutes for a win that had postseason ramifications.
With three regular-season games left, Washington improved to 14-14 and is 13th in the Big Ten at 6-11. The Huskies are close to clinching a top-14 finish in the conference, which guarantees a first-round bye in the Big Ten tournament that starts March 10 in Chicago.
“It’s huge because they would have jumped us in the standings,” Sprinkle said. “We both would have had five wins (in the conference) and they would have had the win over us.”
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Washington was hoping to sweep its final East Coast road trip, but had to settle for a split following a 64-60 upset loss at Maryland on Saturday.
For the first time in program history, the Huskies played at Jersey Mike’s Arena in front of 8,000 and visited Piscataway, N.J, which was hit hard by a record-breaking blizzard that reportedly dumped more than three feet of snow across the region.
Washington rolled out its 11th different starting lineup because sixth-year center Franck Kepnang, who has been dealing with a lower-body injury, sat out and missed his first game of the season.
Without the 6-foot-11 defensive standout who is third in the Big Ten in blocks (2.1 per game), former Rutgers center Lathan Sommerville made his second start of the season and finished with eight points before fouling out against his old team.
Washington took control early and went up 21-9 after freshman guard Courtland Muldrew canned a three-pointer. The Huskies maintained momentum and pulled ahead 36-22 when seldom-used freshman forward Nikola Dzepina dropped another three with 3:08 left in the first half.
Before the break, UW allowed a 7-0 run and led 36-29 at halftime.
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The Scarlet Knights closed to 45-40 early in the second half when Sommerville scored four straight points on two free throws and a dunk to start an 8-0 run that ended with Yates’ steal and a highlight fast-break dunk for a 53-40 lead.
Minutes later, Yates, who had connected on 7 of 30 three-point attempts in the past four games and just 3 of 12 in his last outing, drained back-to-back threes, which seemed to be the knockout blows for the Huskies who led 63-45 with 9:17 left.
However, UW’s comfortable lead dwindled to 73-68 in the final two minutes when Rutgers drew a slew of fouls for easy buckets while the clock stopped. The Knights connected on 23 of 32 free throws while the Huskies were 16 of 21.
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Needing a basket, Steinbach sank a contested mid-range jumper that beat the shot-clock buzzer and Yates drove for a difficult layup to stretch UW’s lead to 77-68 with 42 seconds left.
“We had some really sloppy turnovers where they were stealing outlet (passes),” Sprinkle said. “The game should have been over before that and it’s stuff we got to learn from.
“For us to have 24 fouls and them 17 when we had the lead most of the game and they’re trying to foul? I don’t know, but I’m just super proud of these guys and our effort.”
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Lino Mark scored 18 points, Darren Buchanan Jr. 17 and Tariq Francis 14 for Rutgers (11-17, 4-13), which shot 39.7% from the field, including 3 of 14 on three-pointers.
Washington converted 50% of its field goals, including 7 of 19 behind the arc. UW also had more rebounds (34 to 29), assists (15 to 10) and points in the paint (40 to 24).
The Huskies return home to face Wisconsin (19-8, 11-5) on Saturday and host USC (18-9, 7-9) on March 4 before their regular-season finale at Oregon (10-17, 3-13) on March 7.
Note
— Steinbach leads major-conference players with 17 double-doubles and he’s one away from tying the Big Ten freshman record set by Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger during the 2010-11 season.BOX SCORE
Percy Allen: pallen@seattletimes.com. Percy Allen is a sports reporter for The Seattle Times, where he writes about the University of Washington Huskies men’s and women’s basketball teams and the Seattle Storm.
