SEATTLE – We’re getting to see the character of the University of Washington women’s basketball team and noticing that if the Huskies don’t rebound, forget it.
The Huskies lost their first two games, double-figure defeats to Marquette and Purdue, and lost the battle on the glass by a combined 18 – 15 to Purdue.
It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure it out. Size is one of Washington’s strengths. The Huskies’ inside players – starters Andrea Plouffe and Breanne Watson are 6-2 and 6-1, respectively. They have 6-3 Maggie O’Hara, 6-0 Jill Bell and 6-2 Laura McLellan as their main inside players off the bench. Oak Harbor’s 6-3 Heidi McNeill is developing and should see more playing time as the season goes by. She’s needed.
So the Huskies should be tough on the boards. They have to be. With perimeter players concentrating on applying ball pressure, overplaying the passing lanes and giving zero rest to the opponent, the last act is to terminate the opponent’s possession with a defensive rebound.
In the Travelers Husky Classic final Sunday, an 81-63 victory over Northern Iowa, the Huskies showed rebounding dominance, especially on the offensive end, from which 21 of their 46 boards came. Overall, Washington held a 46-32 advantage on the glass.
As a result, Washington had its best offensive showing of the season, shooting 47 percent from the floor.
“We were definitely better,” UW coach June Daugherty said. “I think some of that is coming because we were a little more patient, offensively. We understand how important it is to go inside-out. Now our teammates are anticipating when a player is going to go and score or kick it back out, which puts our rebounding in a better position. Better shot selection will always help our offensive rebounds.”
Bell led everybody with 10 boards, half on the offensive end. She was one of five Huskies who grabbed five or more boards each.
“I think I just kind of focused on that,” Bell said. “My numbers were down last year and I realized I needed to get back on the boards. I just tried to crash the boards every time the ball is put up. It’s nice that it’s finally working.”
The better it works, the better the Huskies will be. This is a team that needs to squeeze every point it can from their defense, in the way of a steal that leads to a transition basket or a defensive rebound that leads to a quick outlet pass that leads to another pass that leads to a fastbreak layup.
Washington is less successful in the halfcourt offense – the Huskies were just 2-of-15 from beyond the three-point arc, but made up for it by scoring 21 points off Northern Iowa’s 20 turnovers. Offensive efficiency, of course, likely will improve as the season wears on and the team continues to boost its patience on offense.
” (Winning the tournament) is huge,” said Watson, voted the tournament MVP. “I keep on talking about starting the season 0-2. It was really tough on us. We were really disappointed with that. To get three wins in a row, that’s a huge confidence booster for going out on the road again this coming week. It is going to be good for us.”
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