Shooting woes cost Washington men at No. 9 Illinois

Published 9:30 am Friday, January 30, 2026

The Washington Huskies have shown this season that they can hang with the big boys.

The just can’t beat them.

The UW men’s basketball team fell 75-66 on No. 9 Illinois’ Lou Henson Court Thursday. The Huskies have played five teams ranked 12th or higher in the Associated Press Poll in the past seven games. They’ve handled unranked Utah and Oregon, but are 0-5 in that stretch against ranked foes.

Washington (11-10 overall, 2-7 Big Ten) stayed in it for the majority of the night against Illinois, but never got any closer than five points after a pair of free throws by Hannes Steinbach pulled UW within 60-55 with 8:47 to go.

Steinbach recorded his 13th double-double in 18 games played, finishing with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Zoom Diallo became the first Husky since Sahvir Wheeler two seasons ago to post a points-assists double-double. Diallo, held to 25 minutes after two early fouls, had 12 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.

“I thought (Diallo) was great, even in the first 10 minutes out of that second half,” Washington coach Danny Sprinkle said. “I thought he was really aggressive, scoring and passing.”

Wesley Yates added 13 points and five rebounds. The sophomore guard made three of five 3-point attempts. The rest of the team clanked 20 of 23 attempts to help Illinois win its 10th straight.

“It’s huge,” Sprinkle said of Yates, who has hit six of nine attempts in the past two games. “We need other guys stepping up, making shots. I thought we had some good looks, especially in the last 10 minutes. We had some critical ones that could have gotten it to a single-score game.

“Hopefully they fall (at Northwestern) Saturday night. We just got to keep shooting that thing. They’ll fall.”

The Huskies have faced the gauntlet the last few weeks. Saturday’s game at Northwestern begins a 10-game stretch against currently unranked opponents to close out the regular season. Though the schedule eases up, the task of getting to the NCAA Tournament remains a tall one.

For any chance of a strong run to close out the conference season, Washington will need the quality of its shooting to match Sprinkle’s faith in it. UW earned a one-game reprieve from its 3-point shooting woes against Oregon, sinking 10 of 21 (48%), but Washington shot just 26% from 3 on Thursday while the Illini made 11 of 33 attempts (33%).

Though both teams pulled down 34 rebounds, the Illini turned them into damage against Washington. Illinois used 14 offensive rebounds to outscore the Huskies 24-4 in second-chance points.

“Our discipline in our box outs, all the details, we talk about winning the margins,” Sprinkle said. “Against a team like Illinois that puts so much pressure on you boxing out — like, I understand they’re the number one offensive rebounding team in the country. But if you want to beat them, you got to do it. They got us to break a couple times in that second half.”

Washington got off to a promising start with a 7-0 lead, but Illinois (18-3, 9-1) responded with an 8-0 run and never trailed again.

Illinois freshman Keaton Wagler — the reigning national player of the week after scoring 46 points against then No. 4 Purdue — led the Illini with 22 points and eight assists. Wagler was more than happy to find teammates against the Huskies.

“For me, it’s just taking what the defense gives me,” Wagler told FS1’s Steve Smith after the game. “If they’re letting me go by myself, one-on-one, I’m going to look to score the ball. But if they’re putting two on me and helping a lot, I’m going to look for my teammates. And I know they can make the right play every time.”

The beneficiaries of Wagler’s passes were often David Mirkovic (19 points, three of eight 3s) and Ben Humrichous (14 points, four of six 3s).

After UW’s early run, the 3 struggles returned early, as the Huskies made one of their first nine. Illinois used a 10-0 run, holding UW scoreless during a span of over 4 minutes for an early 10-7 edge.

The Huskies trailed just 20-16 with 6:29 to go in the half, but never got closer than five points the rest of the way.

This story was originally published at www.emeraldcityspectrum.com.