By Percy Allen / The Seattle Times
SEATTLE — The Washington Huskies got a glimpse of life without prized freshman forward Isaiah Stewart, and for a while things looked pretty hairy on Friday night.
Still, No. 25 Washington overcame foul trouble, poor perimeter shooting and shoddy ball-handling to claim a 73-56 non-conference win over Montana in a sloppy game that included 51 fouls and a combined 41 turnovers.
Considering all that went wrong for Huskies, they were fortunate to escape with their second straight win and improved to 4-1.
Washington’s three leading scorers were saddled with foul trouble, and yet Nahziah Carter (13 points and six rebounds), Jaden McDaniels (12 and six rebounds) and Stewart (14 points) provided just enough offense to avoid what could have been an embarrassing defeat.
Both teams had difficulty adjusting to a tightly officiated game in which three players fouled out.
Coach Mike Hopkins gambled early and put Stewart on the court with two fouls at the 11:17 mark in the first half. Twenty-five seconds later, he collected his third foul while attempting to grab an offensive rebound and went to the bench for the remainder of the first half.
Washington built its lead 26-15 and had held Montana in check offensively before allowing the Grizzlies an 11-3 run that tied the score at 29-29 following Sayeed Pridgett’s midrange jumper with 1:19 left in the first.
During Montana’s spurt, Carter picked up his third foul joined Stewart on the bench.
However, Jamal Bey beat the first-half buzzer with a driving layup that put UW on top 31-29 at the break.
Things turned potentially disastrous for the Huskies early in the second half when Stewart collected his fourth foul and Montana took its first lead (32-31) on Pridgett’s three-pointer.
McDaniels punctuated the win with a putback jam to clean up a Carter miss with 5:54 that sent the crowd heading for the exits.
Washington goes for three straight wins 7:30 p.m. Sunday when it hosts San Diego.
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