Washington holds off Boise State 77-74 in 1st round of NIT

SEATTLE — Late-game drama was a season-long theme for the Washington Huskies. It was that way in The NIT, too.

The Huskies were up by 10 points with 44 seconds remaining before chaos, along with a few fouls, made Wednesday a bit closer than they would have liked. Boise State, after Chandler Hutchison sank two free throws, cut it to three and forced a steal with three seconds to go. It was enough time for Broncos’ guard Lexus Williams to get off two shots, but not enough to force overtime.

And that’s the cliff notes version of how UW survived in a 77-74 win in a first round NIT game at Alaska Airlines Arena. UW (21-12) advanced to the second round where it will face St. Mary’s (29-5) on Monday at McKeon Pavilion in Moraga, California.

“You’re going to give me a heart attack right now,” said Hopkins, while discussing the game’s frantic finish. “I almost had a cardiac there. Our guys have been very aggressive and I was so happy with how they came out with energy and aggressiveness. When we built a 10-point lead, we said ‘No fouls. Do not foul.’ … We were still being a little bit too aggressive.”

Williams sank two free throws on the following possession but Hutchison, who scored a game-high 39 points, forced an end-to-end steal and hit a jumper plus a free throw to cut UW’s lead to 75-70 with 25 seconds remaining. The Huskies were also drawing fouls but struggled to convert their free throws and that allowed the Broncos (23-9) to trim the lead at an expedited rate.

Huskies guard David Crisp made one of two free throws for a six-point lead with 21 seconds to go. Hutchison scored again and another Crisp foul shot made it 77-72 with 10 seconds remaining.

It took five seconds for Hutchison to draw a foul and go to the line where he cut the lead to 77-74 with five seconds to go to give his team a shot at forcing an extra frame.

“At the end of games — especially when the other team’s within striking distance —things happen fast,” said Huskies guard Matisse Thybulle, who scored 18 points but also had five fouls. “We just gotta take care of the ball and hit our free throws down the stretch. There is a couple possessions where we could have taken better care of the ball and we missed a couple free throws that let them back into it.”

UW would commit 16 turnovers and go 16-for-23 from the charity stripe.

The path to the second round initially looked cemented given how the Huskies closed prior the game’s final minute. UW went on a run by scoring on six of its eight shots to create a 12-point lead with 3:31 left before Boise State started to attack.

Crisp made what looked like the game’s most pivotal play when around 90 seconds left. He was trying to find an option but as the shot clock dwindled, he drove to the net and saw something at the last second.

It was a wide open Dominic Green. The Huskies’ junior sharpshooter, as he’s done all year, found his spot in the corner and drilled a 3-pointer with 1:36 left.

Boise State, after trailing by as much as 17, tore through UW in the third quarter by shooting 9-for-17 and cutting the lead to 48-45 going into the fourth. UW responded by closing out the game by scoring on six of its final eight shots.

There were a few clear signs the Broncos and Huskies were in for a bizarre evening. BSU was granted a No. 4 seed but with its venue, The Taco Bell Arena, in use for the NCAA Tournament, it meant fifth-seeded UW got to host.

Yet the Broncos were technically the home team which only amplified the evening odd nature given The NIT is testing with a few new rules.

Two of those adaptations — playing four quarters and an extended 3-point line — were felt early. UW shot 46.7 percent in the first quarter and kept it going with a 52.9 percent clip in the second. The Huskies scored 22 points in the paint while the Broncos, who scored a single field goal in the second quarter, only had eight in the first half.

“Throughout the whole game, we thought we had control of it,” said UW freshman guard Jaylen Nowell, who scored a team-high 25 points. “They played hard to the last buzzer sounded. I heard (a Boise State) player say, ‘If we’re gonna go down, we’re gonna go down fighting.’ That was very cool of him to say that and it shows how much leadership is on that team.”