SEATTLE — Those who were curious about how the University of Washington men’s basketball team might bounce back from a humbling loss at St. Louis last Sunday were still wondering 12 minutes into Friday’s first game back.
Despite unlikely contributions from freshman big men Shawn Kemp Jr. and Martin Breunig, UW couldn’t seem to shake Houston Baptist University from its lapel.
But the hometown Huskies eventually got it together, overcoming a slow start to run their non-conference home winning streak to 36 in regular-season games with an 88-65 win at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
“We embarrassed everybody when we went out to St. Louis,” said sophomore C.J. Wilcox, who bounced back from an early benching to score a team-high 19 points, “so we knew we had to come out and make a statement.”
On an afternoon when head coach Lorenzo Romar warned the players he would have a quick hook — and lived up to the threat — the Huskies (4-1) hit 10 of 21 shots from 3-point ranged to pull away from HBU in what UW billed as the final tune-up before a difficult road trip that could tell a lot about this year’s Huskies.
Wilcox put on another shooting clinic at home, hitting 5 of 9 shots from 3-point range on the way to a team-high 19 points. Terrence Ross added three 3-pointers among his 13 points while adding 13 rebounds.
Four Huskies finished in double figures.
But the game might be better remembered for Romar’s substitution pattern than it was for his team’s eventual blowout win.
After giving the players a do-it-right-or-watch-it-from-the-bench ultimatum, Romar benched starters Wilcox and Aziz N’Diaye 84 seconds in. He continued to express the right to use a quick hook, most notably after a pair of first-half mistakes by freshman phenom Tony Wroten Jr.
The first came after Wroten stripped an opposing player at one end of the floor but made an out-of-control turnover at the other end five seconds later. Then, with 1:39 remaining in the first half, Wroten trailed HBU’s Marcus Davis on a fastbreak and made an ill-advised shot block attempt that resulted in a huge collision and an intentional foul call.
“We’re at a point where it’s not about anybody’s feelings,” Romar said of pulling Wroten from the game. “It’s about being the best team we can be.”
Wroten got it together in the second half to lead a 10-0 run that offset any hopes of an HBU comeback. He finished with 14 points, five assists, three rebounds and six steals in 25 minutes of action.
Romar noted that Wroten was more crisp with his passing after the first-half benching. The freshman from Seattle’s Garfield High School wasn’t overly surprised by the coach’s hook.
“He was making a statement,” Wroten said. “We have a chance to be a very good team. We just have to cut down on mistakes.”
Romar saw far too many correctable mistakes during the course of a 77-64 loss to St. Louis last Sunday to let the Huskies continue on their way, so he ditched the first-offense warnings in Friday’s game and went straight to the bench.
“There are consequences,” he said. “If you do enough of those things that have a negative impact on the game defensively, we don’t give ourselves a chance.”
Coming off the loss to St. Louis, which marked the Huskies’ first defeat of the season, UW struggled to find a rhythm early on Friday afternoon. While Kemp came off the bench to score two quick baskets, and Breunig added a couple putbacks, UW found itself clinging to a 23-20 with eight minutes to go in the first half. Three 3-pointers keyed an 18-0 run over the next six minutes as UW put the visiting Huskies from HBU away.
By halftime, UW led 42-26 and never got much of a scare over the final 20 minutes.
The Huskies mostly relied on the play of Wilcox, who scored a season-low four points in St. Louis and suffered a concussion that kept him out of some practice time this week. Wilcox showed no sign of effects on Friday, when he hit 7 of 13 shots from the field and missed just two of his seven attempts from 3-point range.
Desmond Simmons provided a spark off the bench, hitting a pair of 3-pointers on the way to 10 points.
But UW struggled again from the free-throw line (10 of 21) and got very little from starters like Darnell Gant (seven points and two rebounds) and Abdul Gaddy (six points) for the second game in a row.
Romar was also frustrated by Houston Baptist’s 14 offensive rebounds and UW’s 16 turnovers.
With upcoming road games at Nevada and against Duke and Marquette in Madison Square Garden, Romar knows the performance he saw Friday wouldn’t be enough to keep UW on its winning track.
“For the next two or three weeks, we’re going to play games that are comparable to league play,” he said, “and we need to be prepared for that. For the most part, I thought we did a pretty good job tonight.”
But when asked how the team would have to play against Nevada, Duke and Marquette to stay competitive, Romar didn’t hesitate.
“Much better,” he said. “We have to play much better.”
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