It has been a tradition for Washington basketball over the last decade or so to host a public exhibition against a local D-II or D-III opponent that results in a 40+ point win. That changed on Sunday as the Huskies
hosted UNLV for an exhibition aired on B1G+ to face a team that should actually be competitive. Neither roster was close to full strength which took some of the air out of the result but Washington was able to hold a double-digit lead for nearly the entire game on the way to a 77-62 victory over the Mountain West foe.
Washington was missing several key players who are either still banged up or recovering from recent injuries such as Quimari Peterson, Zoom Diallo, and Desmond Claude. The hope is all will be back for the opener but it left the Huskies with a greatly depleted guard rotation and gave an opportunity to see a lot of freshmen on the floor.
With fewer guard options we saw Washington opt for a starting lineup of JJ Mandaquit, Wesley Yates, Bryson Tucker, Hannes Steinbach, and Franck Kepnang. The Dawgs usually kept two of the big trio of Steinbach, Sommerville, and Kepnang on the floor at all times. That may not be as common once the guards are back and healthy.
UNLV similarly was missing a chunk of their roster (without starting SG Myles Che as well as projected starting and backup centers Emmanuel Stephen and Ladji Dembele) and going against Washington’s twin towers-esque lineups largely chose to shoot it from deep and hope the shots went in at a high rate. Throughout the first half they generally did not as the Rebels started out of 3/18 from deep in the 1st half and Washington raced out to a 23-12 advantage and kept it going for a 39-25 halftime lead.
It looked like Washington was going to blow it completely wide open after opening the second half on a 6-2 run but UNLV climbed back into it with a 12-2 run of their own to cut the lead back to single digits. Washington reasserted themselves with a quick 6-0 run and the lead generally stayed between 12-16 points the rest of the way.
Hannes Steinbach lived up to his pedigree with a team-high 22 points to go along with 16 rebounds while playing 35 minutes. The German big man showed off his skills in the post as well as his connective passing ability that should make him an extremely effective weapon at the free throw line against zone defenses.
The other freshman standout was JJ Mandaquit who showed off why he’s likely to be the starting point guard on this roster. Mandaquit repeatedly pushed the pace in transition displaying the ability to pass guys open with bounce passes in traffic leading to dunks or layups. He had the ball in his hands almost the entire game and finished with 9 points and 12 assists versus 5 turnovers.
Washington mostly tried to get the ball inside given their height advantage and missing some of their spacing options. The Dawgs finished 5/17 from deep (although 3/6 in the 2nd half). Freshman Jasir Rencher was 0/2 from deep but every other Husky who attempted one shot exactly 33.3%. Wesley Yates who shot over 40% last season at USC had a bit of an off game finishing 2/6 from behind the arc and just 1/3 inside of it. That resulted in an 11 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists stat line.
Forward Bryson Tucker, a transfer from Indiana, was Washington’s only other double-digit scorer finishing with 14 points and 5 rebounds on 6/9 shooting. He took several shots just inside the three-point arc, something that plagued him last year as a freshman, but today they basically all went in. In the future though it would be nice to see those attempts stretch a few feet further back to be worth an extra point.
The duo of Franck Kepnang and Lathan Sommerville each played 18 minutes. Both finished with 6 points and 4+ rebounds (Kepnang had 5) but Kepnang was more effective as a rim protector even if he wasn’t credited with a block in this game.
Freshman Courtland Muldrew scored 5 points in about one minute early in the 1st half to help extend the lead to double-digits but forced things after that and ended up finishing just 2/7 from the floor. Fellow freshman Jasir Rencher finished with 4 points going 2/2 on 2-pointers and 0/2 from beyond the arc. We’ll see how much either winds up playing this season.
Washington will open the regular season on Monday 11/3 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on B1G+ (time still to be announced).
