Mark J. Terrill / AP
Here’s some analysis on last night’s 59-52 win over Oregon State in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 Tournament. Today, we hear from Anthony Cassino, who also writes for another great Huskies’ site: UW Dawg Pound.
by Anthony Cassino
We’ve all heard the cliché that this team’s offense is fueled by its defense, and last night the defense got an assist from an unlikely source: the rim. With Josh Tarver and Jared Cunningham on a two-on-none break, Tarver threw a dunk off the back of the iron, and almost as quickly as the ball shot out of the cylinder, the momentum of the game changed.
The Huskies came out with no energy, and played (in my estimation) their worst half of basketball this season to open the game. The shots weren’t falling, and when the Dawg defense was sound, Oregon State bailed themselves out by knocking down desperation three-pointers (the Beavers hit on their first six from deep).
Isaiah Thomas and Quincy Pondexter combined for just six points in the first half on only one made shot. There were scoreless stretches for the Huskies of 7:01 and 4:11.
The second half didn’t look like it was starting any better, with the Dawgs going scoreless for the first 2:46. But, almost on cue, Tarver missed his breakaway dunk and the real Huskies decided to show up and play some basketball. The team started getting to the free throw line, forcing turnovers and getting offensive boards, as Thomas and Turner knocked down threes and Oregon State’s three-point shooting came back down to earth.
A 27-8 run commenced and the Dawgs never looked back, as they made liars of those who say it’s hard to beat a team three times in one season. (In fact, the Pac-10 has had three teams go 3-0 against an opponent this year. And that number will be four if the Huskies can beat Stanford.)
Player of the Game: Isaiah Thomas. He didn’t have his best game (4/16 from the field) but he made some big threes and fueled the team in the second half. Once he got rid of the glove, his shot improved.
Play of the Game: Justin Holiday made a slick pass from the top of the key to a cutting Quincy Pondexter, who laid the ball in and got fouled. The play brought the game to within three points, and made it feel like the Huskies had taken control.
Unsung Hero: Elston Turner. The sophomore kept the team from digging itself into too big a hole by hitting back-to-back shots in the first half (one of them a three). He also hit the three pointer that gave UW the lead they never relinquished.
Headscratcher of the Game: When the Dawgs were struggling in the first half, Lorenzo Romar tried a lineup of Abdul Gaddy, Elston Turner, Scott Suggs, Darnell Gant and Matthew Bryan-Amaning. Individually, I like all of those players a lot. As a group? Not so much. I don’t know how Coach expected that group to create shots.
Stat of the Game: Tyreese Breshers did not commit a foul. This is the first time that’s happened since the Portland State game in which, I should add, Breshers did not play.
Thanks for coming!
Tags: Anthony Cassino
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Nice recap, Anthony. Boy, that first half was scary. Nice job coming back, boys. I am not sure I agree that Thomas was the player of the game, though. At the very least, we have to give Turner a co-player of the game in this one. Without him hitting big shots our season is over. Bravo E.T.
On a side note, I think we should begin the Stanford game with a full court press. I am not a huge fan of the press, and actually don’t think our press is all that hard to break…but, when this team starts to press, they start to play with more energy all over the floor. For some reason, we have trouble getting our energy up to start games. Maybe starting with the press will ignite us early. It can’t hurt.
If we beat Stanford, we should be able to stamp a ticket to the dance no matter what happens the following night. Wow, what a strange turn of events in a strange season.
Go Dawgs.
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Thanks for the recap. Yeah, that game was scary. Coach Robinson deserves a lot of credit for the Beavers success last night. They threw a lot of stuff at us (tall guys that can hit a three, a different zone, etc.) that we hadn’t seen from them (even though we just played them a few days ago). I wonder if Robinson had that stuff in his back pocket for a while but only decided to use it during the tournament.
I really didn’t think the Huskies played that poorly the first half. They shot horribly, but those things happen (and they tend to even out). The Dawgs didn’t make too many mistakes and managed to cause a few turnovers in the first half.
I think the Huskies figured out OSU and eventually wore down the Beavers. OSU made a lot of mental mistakes (including the missed dunk) that are a sign of fatigue. That is why, for example, I didn’t mind the weird lineup in the first half. The Huskies weren’t doing much at that point, so the lineup gave a lot of guys time to rest. Earlier in the season, I saw Romar put in strange lineups, but at less opportune times (such as when we were nursing a small lead or seemed to be on a roll). I think if OSU started to stretch the lead, then Romar would have changed the lineup pretty quickly.
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Games against set offense, slow tempo teams are often tough to watch. Teams like OSU and ASU take away a lot of the fast break and transition hoops which are usually the most spectacular plays and often provide momentum or initiate a run. Of course fast break and transition are Husky bread and butter.
Great teams can win ugly and that’s what last night was- ugly.
My guess is that we blow out Stanford.
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Can’t argue with Turner. But I think the team feeds off of Thomas more, so his contribution’s were more important in terms of getting the team rolling. Turner was fantastic though.
And yeah, pressing Stanford is a great idea, as they don’t really have a point guard who can break it. It’ll force Fields and Green to bring the ball up, which should disrupt their offense even if we can’t get turnovers.
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I didn’t get to watch some of the last of the season games. What happened to make Turner the off-the-bench guy over Suggs? Did Suggs just lose his touch in the end?
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We have been pressing a little more since that USC game, I like it. Another big game tonight. Love this time of year.
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Just to clarify..UW Dawg Pound is NOT Anthony Cassino’s site..UW Dawg Pound is run by John Berkowitz and Cassino just contributes BB related materials to the site.
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Not to take away from Turner, but he had a few dumb TO’s last night. Not only were they just dumb, but they were at a real bad time. He did make up for it though. If he can make better decisions and eliminate those momentum swinging mistakes from his game it would greatly help the Huskies.
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My apologies! Fixed…
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Yeah, I don’t think Stanford matches up real well w/the Huskies; we’ll see. Oregon State’s zone has always given ‘em fits. On the OR St game I just wanted to make two comments – 1) it IS tough to beat a team three times, and I think that was the lesson of last night – of the Stanford game, and of the first 1/2 of the Oregon St-UW game. Secondly, I think my game ball goes to Justin Holiday. That guy made a couple defensive plays that turned the tide. And it was the clamp down on defense that gave us the win.
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@ Ryan
Turner I think just matched up better defensively, and made two shots early on that convinced Romar that his shot was on that night. Suggs came in for a few minutes and missed a three ball, and that was it for him.
Also, I think Romar likes Turner more in playoff/close game situations (aside from his foul shooting) because he did well in the NCAA tournament last year, and is more calm and collected under pressure. Suggs is more of an extend our lead kind of guy.
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Also I think its because most of our end of the season games have been away games
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Turner seems to be more willing to put up a tough shot than Suggs. I thinks for this reason, Turner is the best option when our offense stagnates, as it did last night. He can and will take a contested shot…and sometimes he’ll hit it.
When the Huskies go on extended scoreless stretches, as they have all season long, they often don’t get off any shot at all on a possession. So having a guy who isn’t scared to shoot over a defender is a good thing when the offense isn’t clicking.
Suggs, on the other hand, is a great guy to put in a game where things are working. I agree with Leo that he is an “extend our lead” guy. He is a better shooter than Turner and will hit open threes more consistently than any other Husky. So, if our inside game is working, Suggs can camp out beyond the arc and hit threes.
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The Suggs-Turner decision may really be more of a defense/rebounding question. I’ve been a Suggs supporter all season but give the nod to Turner in both those catagories.
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For anybody interested, we’ve got a game thread open at UWDawgpound. For those of you not familiar with SBNation’s commenting system, the comments appear as they’re posted (without the need to refresh) so it’s really more like a group chat room. So if you want to chat while you root for the Dawgs, come on over.
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