SEATTLE — Cinderella is likely to make her appearance next month, just as she does every March.
If anyone was expecting her at KeyArena on Tuesday night, she missed that ball.
While the upstart Seattle University men’s basketball program hung around for awhile against the mighty
Washington Huskies, the Redhawks never seriously challenged their big brothers from the other side of Portage Bay.
UW (19-8) pulled away after a relatively close first half for a 95-74 win over Seattle U. in front of an announced crowd of 11,386 at KeyArena.
“Everybody had a sour taste in their mouth after the Arizona game,” UW senior Matthew Bryan-Amaning said Tuesday night, referring to Saturday’s one-point loss in Tucson. “(The Huskies) came out with a lot of intensity, a lot of fight, and to show everybody we’re still who they think we are.”
Seattle U. (10-17) had a better showing than the Redhawks had in last year’s 47-point loss at UW, but it wasn’t enough to pull the upset in Year 2 of the renewed cross-town rivalry.
“We knew this team was going to be a real scrappy team, and we’ve had problems with teams like that — we lost to Oregon State,” Huskies wingman Justin Holiday said. “We knew we had to out-scrap them.”
The Huskies, who were playing in an unfamiliar arena that had a few more purple-clad fans but more passion coming from those dressed in red, never trailed in a game that saw UW lead by as many as 26 points. But there were times when UW looked out of its element, the most notable of which was an airball free-throw by star junior Isaiah Thomas with five minutes left in the first half. Shortly thereafter, he was laughing at himself on the visiting bench.
“I’ve never air-balled” on a free throw, Thomas said afterward. “That one slipped; that’s why I laughed.”
Thomas also got juked so badly by a crossover dribble from SU’s Cervante’ Burrell that he fell down, only to watch from his backside while Burrell missed an open jumper.
But the Huskies had their share of highlight-reel plays in the first half as well, including a pair of monster dunks by Terrence Ross and Holiday, while pulling out to an eight-point halftime lead.
The Huskies’ new-look lineup — C.J. Wilcox replaced Venoy Overton, 7-footer Aziz N’Diaye returned after a one-game layoff and Bryan-Amaning was wearing No. 55 because his No. 11 jersey got left behind — jumped on the Redhawks right away. Two baskets on consecutive trips down the floor gave UW a 4-0 lead, and SU coach Cameron Dollar promptly called a timeout — 56 seconds into the game.
Burrell, a reserve, checked in for the Redhawks and scored two quick baskets with Thomas on defense. Burrell had eight of SU’s first 10 points, helping the Redhawks stay within striking distance early on.
Seattle U. kept the crowd in the game with a few nice plays during a somewhat competitive first half, while the Huskies struggled just enough to keep it interesting. UW went into halftime with a 37-29 lead despite nine turnovers and 1-of-9 shooting from 3-point range.
Some quick SU fouls early in the second half helped the Huskies put the game away. UW hit seven free throws in the first 2½ minutes after intermission to take a 14-point lead, at 46-32, before blowing past the Redhawks the rest of the way.
The Huskies ended up shooting 42 free throws, including 28 in the second half alone. It was somewhat reminiscent of last year’s game, during which Seattle U. fouled its way to a UW-record 61 free throws.
Three times in the second half alone, Seattle U. fouled a UW player on a 3-point attempt. That resulted in seven points from the free-throw line for the Huskies.
Thomas picked a good night to struggle from the line, missing five of his first six attempts. He still had 20 points to go along with Bryan-Amaning’s team-high 26 and 13 rebounds. N’Diaye added a double-double of his own, with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Seattle U.’s Burrell led all scorers with 26 points.
The most drama came about a half hour before the game, when Bryan-Amaning realized that he’d left his jersey back at UW. He had a team manager call back to campus, where another manager grabbed the jersey and tried to bring it to KeyArena in time for tip-off. That manager got stuck in traffic and didn’t deliver the jersey in time.
Thomas said his teammate looked “ugly (and) nasty” in the No. 55 jersey, but the big man had a pretty good-looking line while hitting 9 of 11 shots from the field.
No matter how it looked, the Huskies did enough to get back on the winning track in the end.
“They’re the type of team that’s not going to quit, so no matter what the score was, they were going to keep fighting and linger around,” UW junior Darnell Gant said. “This was a team where we had to have the mindset that they were going to stick around.”
The Redhawks did that for awhile, but Cinderella didn’t even make the trip.
Of note
The Huskies were playing their second game without guard Scott Suggs, who sprained an ankle early in the Feb. 17 win at Arizona State. Suggs is expected back next week, Romar said Monday. … UW’s Overton fouled out with 6:21 remaining in the game. One of his fouls came when he was whistled for a technical while standing and posing over a fallen opponent midway through the second half.
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