SEATTLE – Andrea Plouffe watched a week ago as the Washington women’s basketball team won its first game of the season at Eastern Washington.
Patellar tendinitis left the Huskies’ junior center sidelined, and it was unclear if she’d be able to play when Washington made its home debut Saturday.
But the pain eased up with five days of rest and Plouffe let out some of her built up energy on Saint Louis. Plouffe had a career-high 23 points and Cameo Hicks broke the 1,000-point mark for her career with 21 points as Washington had its best offensive game of the season in defeating the Billikins 96-69 in the first round of the Basketball Travelers Husky Classic at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
Washington (2-2) advances to play Northern Iowa (1-3) at 3 p.m. today in the championship game. Saint Louis (5-1) plays Miami of Ohio (2-3) at 12:30 today for third place. Northern Iowa beat Miami 73-66 in overtime Saturday.
Washington has never lost a first-round game in 20 Husky Classics, and has now won its last six home openers.
“I’m happy we came back as a team and we started doing what we know how to do: run the floor, play defense,” said Plouffe, who was 9-for-16 in 22 minutes. “That was a breakthrough for our team because we were in a little slump.”
It was by far the Huskies’ best offensive game of the year. Washington came into the contest averaging 64 points on 31 percent shooting, and hadn’t shot better than 32 percent in any of its three games. But against Saint Louis, the Huskies shot 44.6 percent and scored their most points since putting up 96 against UCLA on Jan. 12.
“These guys made great strides in the improvements areas (like) moving the basketball,” UW coach June Daugherty said. “The backside was cutting harder. I thought we had much better movement and spacing than what we had in our first three games, and I thought we shared the basketball much better.”
Washington didn’t break the game open until midway through the second half despite holding Saint Louis without a field goal for 9 minutes, 19 seconds in the first half.
That drought helped give the Huskies a 10-point halftime lead but the Billikins – coached by former Husky assistant Shimmy Gray-Miller – fought back, pulling to 57-53 on a Theresa Lisch 3-pointer with 12:36 to play. But the Huskies went on a 24-4 run over a 5:56 span in which Saint Louis again went without a field goal. Plouffe had eight points in the run and Hicks had seven.
“We shared the basketball a lot better (and) moved it around,” said Hicks, who became the 20th Husky to reach 1,000 points. “That’s what this team can do, score a lot of points, because we have a lot of weapons, (when we) share the ball and get out on the fast break.”
Washington’s matchup zone defense, which it used for the first time this year, was effective against a young Saint Louis team. The Billikins had 27 turnovers which Washington turned into 37 points. Saint Louis shot just 38.9 percent and behind the play of Plouffe, Breanne Watson (16 points on 7-for-10) and Maggie O’Hara (10 points, seven rebounds), the Huskies outscored the Billikins 54-28 in the paint.
“I like the fact that our matchup zone really caused a lot of problems for Saint Louis,” Daugherty said. “Having the luxury of mixing up the zone and our player-to-player tonight put them on their heels and gave us a chance to get into passing lanes and get back to our running game.”
Gray-Miller, who last coached at Washington in 2003 but has since returned as an assistant at Arizona, said Washington was simply a better team than the previous five her team had played this year.
“Washington is far more talented than the first five teams we played,” she said. “They’re in the Pac-10, this was a ranked team. …We haven’t played a ranked team before. The differences were huge.”
As for Plouffe, she said she feels good, but left the arena with two large bags of ice on her knees. The Edmonton native has been plagued by knee pain since high school and it will likely continue to linger. But she said she will play today and hopes to follow up her career night with another solid performance.
“I was trying to be patient and take shots in the offense,” Plouffe said. “They just happened to fall tonight.”
ST. LOUIS
Hennegan 2-3 0-0 5, Kemezys 4-8 1-2 9, Lisch 10-19 3-4 20, Diener 0-10 2-2 2, McIlwraith 5-8 6-8 15, Vickroy 0-1 4-6 4, Gilbert 0-0 0-0 0, Leake 0-0 2-2 2, Young 0-1 0-0 0, Paganelli 4-15 2-9 12, Klotz 0-0 1-2 1, Taylor 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-74 21-30 69.
WASHINGTON
Watson 7-10 2-4 16, Plouffe 10-18 4-6 23, Florence 0-5 0-0 0, Hicks 5-14 11-13 21, Clark 2-8 2-2 6, McLellan 1-3 0-0 2, Bell 4-10 1-1 9, Craddock 2-12 0-0 3, Schelly 0-0 1-2 1, Whitcomb 0-2 1-2 1, O’Hara 2-4 6-6 10, Mosiman 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 35-90 28-36 96.
Halftime-Washington 41-31. 3-Point Goals-St. Louis 6-20 (Lisch 3-6, Diener 0-4, McIlwraith 1-1, Paganelli 2-9), Washington 2-15 (Plouffle 1-2, Florience 0-2, Hicks 0-3, Clark 0-1, Bell 0-2, Craddock 1-4, Whitcomb 0-1). Fouled Out-Hennegan, Paganelli. Rebounds-St. Louis 36 (Lisch 8, McIlwraith 8), Washington 41 (O’Hara 7). Assists-St. Louis 7 (Diener 2, McIlwraith 2, Paganelli 2), Washington 12 (Florence 3, Hicks 3). Total Fouls-St. Louiss 31, Washington 23. A-2,075.
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