Washington leads by one at half

Published 9:12 pm Thursday, February 21, 2008

The Huskies are up 28-27 at halftime, and after both teams came out scoring at will early in the game, it’s a bit surprising that the score is this low. Of course, the Huskies would be up by a few more if they had shot free throws even at their usually low rate, but instead they made just two of nine. They were 1 for 8 when Artem Wallace made one, drawing a big cheer from the crowd.

Arizona, which is not normally a great rebounding team this year, is out-rebounding the Huskies by a 22-19 margin. The Huskies are spreading out the scoring right now, with Ryan Appleby leading the way with six points. He hit two three pointers late in the half to tie, then break Deon Lutton’s school record of 212 three pointers.

Jerryd Bayless leads Arizona with 12 points, but has had an up-and-down half. Washington has played him physically, fouling him six times already, and the freshman seems to be getting a little bit frustrated. He has three fouls, all on the offensive end, and five turnovers.

It will be interesting to see what the Huskies do against Bayless in the second half. The two players who guarded him for most of the half, Venoy Overton and Justin Dentmon have three and two fouls, respectively. If all of Washington’s guards get into foul trouble (Tim Morris also has two), Bayless could be in for a huge second half.