Lots to like about this game for the Huskies. Leading scorers Justin Dentmon and Isaiah Thomas went just 4 for 20, and the Huskies won easily. Jon Brockman, as well as his backup, Matthew Bryan-Amaning, both battled fould trouble, yet the Huskies cruised into the second round.
Mississippi State simply had no answer on defense for Quincy Pondexter, who finished with a season-high 23 points.
“People forget about how deep our bench is, how many guys can come in and make plays,” Dentmon said. “When the me and Isaiah aren’t clicking, Jon and Quincy get it done. When Jon’s out of the game, we hold it together until he gets back in. That’s how far our team has come from last year.”
Lorenzo Romar certainly seemed to like what he saw today.
“I give our guys a lot of credit today for being a team,” he said. “Offensively no one cared who got the shots. We just played basketball. If you can get in a position where you’re a team like that, you have a hard time not reaching your potential, whatever that potential is. Today I thought we played to our potential, because we were a team in every sense of the word.”
By now it should be no surprise that the Huskies are winning all sorts of different ways. For a while Dentmon and Thomas were the big scorers, but on this night, the MSU defense favored Pondexter, so he went to work.
Also impressive was the first half of Elston Turner, often Washington’s third or fourth sub off the bench, who sparked a struggling offense with seven points and three assists in a span of five minutes.
Next up is Purdue on Saturday.
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