SEATTLE — Jon Brockman who got more for Christmas than he expected.
He had his 49th career double-double with 13 points with 11 rebounds Sunday to lead the Washington Huskies to a 75-53 victory over Montana.
Brockman, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, had close to his usual numbers despite being limited by a heavy bandage on his left (non-shooting) hand. He needed three stitches after cutting his thumb opening a Christmas present.
“It’s just annoying, really,” Brockman said. “There’s a little pain but it’s nothing serious.”
Brockman cut his hand with a pocket knife trying to open his nephew’s gift. After seeking advice from a family physician, he decided to have the cut closed with stitches at Monroe Hospital on Christmas evening.
The Huskies’ 6-foot-7 senior forward was already recovering from a right ankle sprain. Earlier in the month, he had to have six stitches under his left eye after taking an elbow in practice.
“When I first got the call, I was concerned then I kind of shook my head as I hung the phone up,” UW coach Lorenzo Romar said. “Really, John didn’t miss the game as a result of that, but it is his senior year and you hate to see stuff like that happen, with his ankle and now this.”
Isaiah Thomas matched Brockman with 13 points for the Huskies (8-3), who have won six in a row. They played for the first time in eight days. Venoy Overton scored a season-high 10 points while Matthew Bryan-Amaning added 10 points and 15 rebounds for Washington.
Montana (6-7), which has lost three straight, was led by Anthony Johnson and Ryan Staudacher, who had 11 points each. All 10 Grizzlies who played scored.
“I’m just trying to keep the motor running, rebound, get the ball down to push it,” said Bryan-Amaning on his improved rebounding numbers.
The Huskies got the motor churning midway through the first half with a game-deciding 23-point run. Bryan-Amaning had eight of his 10 points during the surge.
The Huskies’ run began with a nifty steal by Quincy Pondexter, who flicked a tip-pass to Overton. The 5-foot-11 sophomore guard then raced the floor to finish with a graceful dunk. Overton would have two more crowd-pleasing fastbreak dunks in the half as he had all his points before intermission.
The Grizzlies used a couple time-outs during the UW run to regroup but both resulted in turnovers on the next possession.
Montana went 9 minutes and 36 seconds without scoring. Jordan Hasquet finally ended the futility with a put-back basket with 6:43 left. The Grizzlies had made just five of 20 attempts at that point. They finished with 25 percent shooting for the half, 7-of-28. The Huskies made 14 of 28 for 50 percent.
It wouldn’t work as well for Overton in the second half. During a 30-second span midway through the half, he missed a wide-open dunk. The Huskies quickly got the ball back but Overton would miss a second one.
“I missed the first one and wanted to throw the next one down harder and it kind of slipped out of my hand,” Overton said.
The Huskies, up 41-21 at intermission, had the lead cut to 43-28 three minutes in before Romar called a time-out. Coming out of the time-out, Thomas, held to two first-half points, got the Huskies back on track by drilling a 3-pointer with 16:02 left. He followed that with a smooth sweeping lefthand bank shot to get the Huskies back to a 48-28 lead at 15:10.
Montana could not work the deficit down under 20 points over the final 15 minutes.
“We played two totally different halves,” Romar said. “I thought we played a very, very good first half and not so good second half at all. The second half we didn’t shoot the foul shots well (6 of 14), we didn’t shoot well from the floor (13 of 34) and we turned it over 10 times. There were just a number of things on the offensive end that were disappointing.”
The Grizzlies finished with a 27.9 percent shooting (17 of 61). They also missed 11 of their 26 free throws.
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