The 23rd-ranked Auburn basketball team never lost, in all-white game jerseys and supported by some of the loudest fans in the arena.
You might have thought that this non-conference encounter took place in the heart of the South.
No, just south of University Village, but the Washington Huskies still treated a foreign and unfriendly environment after losing 84-61 to SEC visitors from Alabama at Alaska Airlines Arena on Wednesday night. rice field.
On a cold night in the Northwest, the Huskies (9-4 overall, 1-1 Pac-12) felt the cold without any creativity while running around their home court.
Even with quite a few UW fans on hand for this intersecting match, and even sharing locations with vocal Auburn followers, all the purple-threaded guys were simply miserable on the offensive. It was a huge disappointment for everyone involved.
The Huskies didn’t score their first goal until five and a half minutes had passed — and it was a drive lay-in while freshman guard Coren Johnson used his wrong hand against the Tigers (10- 2).
With the home side finishing the first 10 minutes with seven points and just two field goals, it was clear enough that it was going to be a long night for Mike Hopkins’ team.
Even the presence of offensive-minded Husky quarterback Michael Pennix Jr., one of the country’s leading passers who occupied a front-row seat in the midcourt next to one of UW’s top donors, gave his basketball brothers I couldn’t inspire. put the ball in the basket.
Hey, current football coach Karen DeVore and former UW leader Chris Petersen, and former Husky point guard Isiah Thomas were at home, but still had similar consistent point generation There was nothing.
After trailing 15 points at 27-12 and 29-14 at the end of the first half, the Huskies scrambled to pull within 29-23 on Johnson’s three-point play with 22 seconds remaining, settling for 31-1. rice field. 23 deficit when I came.
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Auburn’s 6-foot-8-inch senior forward Jalyn Williams contributed nearly half the points in the team’s first half with 14.
The Huskies had no one over 5 points at that point. The total was shared by the aforementioned Johnson and former SEC player Kaion Brooks.
Up until that point, the stats manager’s job was fairly simple: just track down mistakes. In his first 20 minutes, UW went from the field where he shot frigid 33-for-7 with 21.2% life loss and from behind the line he went 13-for-2.
Maybe he tried too hard, but Brooks may have had his worst outing in Montelake. On the night, he hit only two of his nine shots in the first half, but was not tracked down and scored his team-high 15 points.
At intermission, colorful Auburn coach Bruce Pearl could not have done a wrong if the team’s charter bus was idling outside the arena.
Many fans began to leave the arena as the Huskies were down 25 at the 5 minute mark.
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