UW men ride resurgent defense, Braxton Meah to win over UC San Diego
The perimeter-shooting slump that paralyzed the Huskies’ offensive attack two weeks ago in Las Vegas returned once again Tuesday night in Seattle.
For the third straight game, the Washington men’s basketball team couldn’t connect with any sort of regularity beyond the three-point arc.
No worries.
UW’s suddenly resurgent defense stymied UC San Diego and tormented the Tritons into their lowest-scoring offensive performance while Sahvir Wheeler and Braxton Meah carried the Huskies to an 83-56 nonconference victory at Alaska Airlines Arena.
Wheeler finished with a 17 points, eight assists and six rebounds while Meah, who has struggled this season while recovering from an ankle injury, tallied a season-high 14 points while connecting on all four of his field goals and converting all six of his free throws in 15 minutes off the bench.
Keion Brooks Jr. poured in a game-high 18 points and nine rebounds and Koren Johnson chipped in 14 points for Washington, which improved to 4-2.
Needing a staunch defensive effort to cleanse their most recent outing when they surrendered a season-high 100 points, the Huskies held the Tritons to 2-for-14 shooting in the first eight minutes.
Still, Washington couldn’t fully exploit its early defensive dominance because it connected on just five of 15 field goals, including 0 for 6 on three-pointers while building an 13-5 lead.
Wheeler connected with Brooks for an alley-oop dunk that pushed UW’s advantage to 10 points at 17-7 and minutes later the Huskies appeared as if they would deliver an early knockout after Wood drained a three-pointer to go up 27-13.
However, after a couple of empty offensive possessions, the Huskies called their first timeout with 4:42 left in first half and leading 27-16.
Washington went into halftime ahead 34-24 and slowly pulled away from UC San Diego after the break while outscoring the Tritons 49-32 in the second half.
Midway in the second half, Wheeler threw a long pass to a streaking Nate Calmese who dashed ahead of a pack, threw the ball off the glass for Braxton Meah who flushed a two-handed jam over Tritons guard Aiden Burke for a 53-37 lead with 11:55 left.
The Huskies came into the game connecting on 10 of 39 three-pointers in the past two outings and converted three of their first 22 three-pointers before draining a barrage of long-distance daggers in the final minutes.
Washington shot 24.2% on threes (8 of 33) while UC San Diego was nine of 34 from long range and 29.9% from the floor.
The Tritons (4-3), who have now lost three in a row, spent the past week in Seattle and looked like a team playing their third road game in five days.
Johnson, who made his second start, Brooks and defensive stalwart Anthony Holland combined to slow down UC San Diego’s top offensive threat Bryce Pope, who scored a team-high 15 points — four fewer than his season average.