SEATTLE – Someone with a positive attitude might say that the Washington women’s basketball team played a strong defensive game against Eastern Washington Monday. Someone who actually saw the game, though, would say that the Huskies sure got lucky playing the Eagles.
In a game Washington probably should have won by 30, a bad Husky performance was rescued by a horrible Eastern Washington effort and the UW wrapped up its non-conference schedule with a 68-57 victory over the Eagles at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
The win was the ninth in a row at home for Washington, dating to last season, and the Huskies finished their non-league schedule 7-2. It also improved Washington to 18-1 all-time against Eastern, though the teams had not met since 1995. Eastern had a two-game winning streak snapped, and fell to 4-4.
Washington now begins preparation for the Pacific-10 season, which begins Dec. 20 at home against California.
“I said on the bench, ‘Man, nothing can get going,’” Washington senior guard Kayla Burt said. “Our defense was all we could really rely on to keep us in the game. It was one of those games where there was really no flow.”
The Huskies shot 29.9 percent from the field, missed 13 free throws and were outrebounded by five. Fortunately, Eastern was far worse. The Eagles shot 32.1 percent but committed 29 turnovers and 28 fouls. The teams combined to shoot 58 free throws.
“It was one of the sloppiest games of the year so far,” said Husky guard Cameo Hicks, who celebrated her 21st birthday by scoring a team-high 16 points. “But sometimes you’re going to win that way. That’s a testament to our hard work. We weren’t hitting all our easy shots but we kept working hard.”
How many of Eastern’s 29 turnovers that Washington actually forced is questionable, but the Huskies clearly pressured Eagles freshman point guard Phynique Allen, who committed eight turnovers.
“It’s one of those games you just have to get down in the trenches and play great defense,” Washington coach June Daugherty said. “We were able to do that.”
For the first 10-plus minutes of the game, many were left wondering if either team would reach double figures in points by halftime. In fact, the entire first half could generously be described as tough to look at.
The teams combined to miss 25 of their first 30 shots. At one point Washington went 6:39 without a field goal, and when it finally did score, it actually tied the game. Later, the Huskies went nearly four minutes without a field goal, and when a bucket came, it gave them a 12-point lead.
But there was a short span of the half, about 31/2 minutes, in which Washington did play well, and that was enough to give it a comfortable lead, particularly if you consider just how poorly Eastern Washington played. After missing two of their first 13 shots, the Huskies made 10 of their next 17, and an 18-2 run turned a 13-10 deficit into a 25-15 lead. Cameo Hicks made two 3-pointers in the run and Andrea Plouffe scored five points, including a three-point play, and the Huskies rode the run to a 34-25 halftime lead.
“Our defensive effort was really good,” Eastern coach Wendy Schuller said. “But Washington is a very good team. They were resilient and hit some big shots. There was that stretch in the first half that basically killed us. Take that out, and it’s a pretty even ball game. But that’s what great teams do. They find that two minutes, or four minutes, to pull the thing away. And then they just hang onto it and keep it there.”
That basically describes the game. Besides the 8-for-12 shooting in the run, Washington went 12-for-55, yet still held a lead that never went lower than nine points or higher than 16.
“We didn’t do a good job early,” Daugherty said. “In our running game, we got some good looks. We didn’t do a good job of reversing the basketball and moving the ball more in the first half.”
The game actually marked the second time this season Washington failed to shoot at least 30 percent yet still won. The Huskies have forced at least 20 turnovers in six of their wins and they improved to 7-0 when holding an opponent to 69 points or less. Still, Washington wasted an opportunity to put Eastern away but shooting just 62.9 percent (22-for-35) from the foul line.
The Huskies did put four players in double figure scoring for the first time this season. Andrea Plouffe, Emily Florence and Dominique Banks each had 10 points for the Huskies. Joanna Chadd scored a game-high 19 points, making five 3-pointers, and Julie Page had 12 points and 11 rebounds for Eastern.
Despite the lackluster effort, Daugherty said she was happy to see her team finish the non-league schedule 7-2 despite playing four 2005 NCAA Tournament teams and one WNIT team.
“We’re 7-2, we’ve been in some great competition, and we’re excited about the direction we’re going,” Daugherty said.
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