By Tim Booth
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Jaylen Nowell scored 20 points, Noah Dickerson added 12 points, and Washington continued its promising early start to conference play with a 66-56 win over California on Thursday night.
The Huskies (13-4, 3-1 Pac-12) overcame a sloppy and unattractive first-half filled with fouls and turnovers to pull away from the Golden Bears over the final 15 minutes. Nowell carried Washington in the first half with 11 points and he got help from his supporting cast in the final 20 minutes.
Nahziah Carter was a big contributor with 10 points off the bench. David Crisp also finished with 10 points, all in the second half for the Huskies.
Justice Sueing led California (7-10, 1-3) with a career-high 27 points, but the Golden Bears faltered in the latter stages of the second half after leading scorer Don Coleman fouled out with nearly 13 minutes remaining.
Coleman, who was averaging 18.9, was already having a bad night and was constantly berated by the Washington student section. His night got worse when he fouled out with 12:47 remaining picking up his fourth foul on a defensive rebound attempt and being assessed a technical foul complaining about the call. The technical was his fifth and sent Coleman to the bench after going 0 of 4 shooting and just four points.
It was the third time this season Coleman failed to score in double figures but two of those have come in the past three games. Coleman was held to four points on 1 of 8 shooting in Cal’s loss to USC last week.
The technical became a turning point. Washington went on an 18-5 run after Coleman fouled out, including 14 straight during one stretch. Crisp, who was scoreless for the first 25 minutes of the game, hit a pair of key 3s during the run. The first time, Crisp flipped a 25-footer off an inbound play to beat the shot clock and push Washington’s lead to 54-43 with 8:30 remaining. He added a corner 3 on the Huskies next possession and the lead was 14 with 7:34 remaining.
The first half was ugly as the teams combined for 19 turnovers and 16 fouls in the first 20 minutes. Only the scoring of Nowell and Sueing saved the half from being a real slog. Sueing had 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting, while Nowell had 11 points, making 4 of 6 shots. Nowell’s 3-pointer with 29 seconds left in the half was followed by Michael Carter III’s 3 in the final seconds to give Washington a 28-24 lead at the break.
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