SEATTLE – With 10 days and two games to go before the Pacific-10 Conference season opens, the University of Washington women’s basketball team is inching toward readiness.
The Huskies (5-4) jumped on Nevada (4-5) early and forced the Wolf Pack into 26 turnovers en route to a 79-60 victory before 1,927 fans Sunday at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. Rattled by Washington’s tenacious ball pressure, Nevada produced just one assist all day and went down rather easily.
“I thought we dictated most of the game,” UW coach June Daugherty said. “That’s exciting.”
Washington jumped out to a 14-2 lead and was rarely challenged after that. The Wolf Pack mustered mild runs that cut several sizable leads to single digits, but rarely were the Huskies seriously pressed. The Huskies’ biggest lead came on a fast-break layup by Stefanie Clark off a gorgeous pass from Cameo Hicks that gave them a 60-38 advantage seven minutes into the second half.
As has been the case for much of the young season, Washington’s harassing defense had much to do with the success of its offensive output. The Huskies forced Nevada into 16 first-half turnovers and converted them into 13 points.
Washington’s pressure seemed to get into the heads of Nevada’s perimeter players, who, even when they weren’t tossing the ball around hither and yon, appeared to look over their shoulders for UW defenders flying at them – whether they were closing in or not.
“We had a lot of unforced turnovers in the first half – just giving them the ball with a lot of travels,” said Nevada coach Kim Janisyte, who knew much of Washington’s philosophies, having been an assistant at Pac-10 rival Arizona State. “We have to do a better job of that. There were a lot of unnecessary turnovers.”
Washington has home games left with Gonzaga (Friday) and Florida State (Sunday) before entering the Pac-10 season Dec. 21 at Oregon. If the Nevada victory is any indication, the Huskies are getting closer to where they need to be going into conference play, especially in the matter of effort, which has to be white-hot every game for the team to contend.
The defensive pressure is improving in the half court. Transition defense, a sticking point for many of the first nine games, has largely been shored up.
The trick is to play the intense, harassing style for 40 minutes. The same can be said of Washington’s offensive consistency in the half court.
“We know we have a lot of work to do, but we are making great strides,” Hicks said. “It all started at Ohio State (an 84-79 defeat Dec. 3). We weren’t playing as hard as we would have liked to. We were not executing offensively or defensively, but I think we’re on the right page.”
Hicks led the Huskies in scoring with 17 points. Clark added a career-high 16. Jill Bell chipped in 10.
Wolf Pack guard Brandi Fitzgerald scored 12 of her team-high 17 points in the second half.
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