The odds and statistics just didn’t play out.
Two members of the No. 17-ranked Washington Huskies who had 3-point shooting statistics that were routine to non-extant at best nailed long-range shots to rally the home team to an 81-77 nonconference men’s basketball victory over Eastern Washington last Sunday at Alaska Airlines Arena.
Nigel Williams-Goss, a 27.6 percent 3-point shooter connected on his second such basket of the game with 1 minute, 16 seconds to play giving the Huskies a 74-70 lead.
And then Darin Johnson, 3 for 10 on the season, hit a 3 on UW’s next trip down the floor to make it 77-72, part of a 8-0 run that gave the Huskies their biggest lead of the game and allowed them to survive the Eagles solid upset bid.
“We played really well, a lot a adversity but they made two big 3-pointers,” EWU had coach Jim Hayford said. “Guys with low 3-point percentages on the night made those two big winning shots and we came up empty.”
Eastern refused to fold, however, as a Tyler Harvey NBA-range 3-pointer with 29 seconds remaining drew the Eagles to within 79-77 but Washington iced it on a pair of Andrew Andrews free throws with 21 seconds left.
Washington improved to 8-0 while Eastern is 8-2 heading into a contest this past Tuesday, Dec. 16 at Sam Houston State University ( a 76-52 loss) and then Friday, Dec. 19 at Pac-12 California.
Earlier in the week the Eagles scored an 81-76 win over the University of San Francisco of the West Coast Conference at War Memorial Gymnasium.
Letting Sunday’s contest slip away after Eastern was in command — leading by as many as 13 points early in the second half — for 35 of the game’s 40 minutes, was as disheartening as it was encouraging for Hayford.
“If they’re the No. 17 team in the nation, we’re pretty good because we came in here and gave them all they could handle,” he said. Eastern maintained its place in the Collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Poll at No. 16.
After a Drew Brandon layup returned Eastern to a double-digit lead, 58-48 with 11:22 remaining, Washington’s defense really surfaced, particularly in the case of Robert Upshaw, the nation’s leader in blocked shots.
In Eastern’s next three trips down the floor, 51 seconds worth, they had three shots blocked, two by Upshaw. While Washington failed to fully take advantage, scoring just a single free throw in that time, it added to the Eagles second-half shooting woes.
After connecting on 43 percent of shots from the field and 46 percent from 3 in the opening 20 minutes, they were 31.6 and 23.5 percent respectively in the second half.
Eastern got double-figure scoring from four players, led by the 21 from Harvey and 16 from Brandon. OG Miljkovic had 14 and Jois 13. Upshaw led the Dawgs with 21, but also had six blocks.
Eastern is now 1-13 all-time versus the Huskies. It was exactly 12 years to the date, the Eagles beat the Huskies 62-58 for the only previous victory over the UW.
In their game at USF, the Don’s had rallied from a double-digit halftime deficit, 40-30, to tie the game 67-67. Jois knocked down a 3-point play with 2:56 to play to break the tie. Parker Kelly followed with a 3-pointer that pushed Eastern’s lead to 73-67 with 2:21 to play. The Eagles closed out the win by making 8-of-10 free throws in the final 1:15.
“We had more possessions and we made more threes,” Hayford said.
Miljkovic led the Eagles with 20 points and part of the 19-point night for Harvey included him surpassing the EWU career milestone of 1,000 points. Kruize Pinkins led the Dons’ with 30 points.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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