SEATTLE — The 3-point shots were open, for the most part, so the Washington Huskies hoisted 13 of them in the first half of Tuesday’s game against Long Beach State.
They made none of them.
They shot another seven 3-pointers during the game’s final six-plus minutes.
They made all of them.
Washington couldn’t shoot from the perimeter in the first half. So the Huskies went inside, feeding sophomore post Noah Dickerson, who scored a career-high 23 points, then found their stroke in time to escape with a 94-88 victory before a crowd of 6,568 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
The Huskies improved to 3-1. Long Beach State fell to 1-5. This is still a dangerous 49ers team, one picked by media to win the Big West this season, and so it is not insignificant that UW prevailed despite shooting so miserably in the first half.
It helped that they made seven 3-pointers in the game’s final six-plus minutes, a sequence sparked by the distribution abilities of star freshman guard Markelle Fultz, who started slowly but finished with 21 points and six assists.
Sophomore guard David Crisp, who made five 3-pointers in the game’s final seven minutes, led the Huskies with a career-best 26 points. He scored 17 in the second half.
LBSU made its first four 3-point attempts and led 16-6 after the game’s first 5 minutes and 20 seconds. Slowly, the Huskies prodded back, and eventually took the lead thanks to a 16-2 run just before halftime.
Fultz was not immune to the Huskies’ shooting woes. He made only 3 of his 11 field-goal attempts in the first half and missed two 3-pointers. But Dickerson was active and accurate, scrapping for offensive rebounds and attacking the rim against an undersized LBSU front line.
Dickerson scored 17 points in the first half, making 7-of-8 from the free-throw line and all five of his field-goal attempts, including a baseline jumper that put UW ahead 36-28 with a little more than a minute left before intermission.
But the 49ers did not go away. They ripped off eight consecutive points early in the second half to take a 43-41 lead, and the Huskies didn’t lead again until David Crisp’s free throws put them ahead 54-53 with 10:16 to play. That was shortly after Dominic Green made UW’s first 3-pointer of the game, after 13 consecutive misses, with 11:20 remaining.
LBSU surged ahead after Evan Payne scored eight points in three possessions, including a pair of 3-pointers, to give his team a 65-58 lead. The Huskies later tied it at 66-66 on a Dickerson bucket assisted by Fultz.
Then came the 9-0 run. Crisp hit a 3-pointer. Fultz started a fast break by pinning a Gabe Levin shot attempt against the glass, and Matisse Thybulle followed with his first 3-pointer. Then he hit another one on an assist from Fultz on UW’s next possession.
Crisp hit another 3 with 4:24 left. Fultz hit his first of the game with 3:49 left to give UW an 81-72 lead. Crisp hit yet another with 1:40 to play, giving the Huskies an 86-79 edge, and then hit another with 50.8 seconds left to put it out of reach.
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