Husky men bounce back, pound Cal State Fullerton by 16 points

What can’t Markelle Fultz do?

The short answer after two games with the Washington men’s basketball team seems to be nothing.

At least that was the prevailing observation Thursday night after the Huskies’ fabulous freshman backed up a 30-point outing in the opener with a 35-point masterpiece to lead UW to a 104-88 nonconference win over Cal State Fullerton.

“It’s no secret Markelle Fultz was terrific tonight just in all areas,” coach Lorenzo Romar said. “Just took the game over at times. He has the ability to make everyone else just look a little better.

“He was doing that at a high level.”

Fultz left the Titans and the 6,284 at Alaska Airlines Arena gasping with a brilliant mix of dazzling dribble-drive layups, high-flying dunks and crowd-pleasing, no-look passes.

“My ability to get to the rim is always open,” Fultz said. “I realized it once I made a couple of threes. … Things were a little slow and I was looking to penetrate, not always to score.”

But he did score — over and over.

Fultz was remarkably efficient while converting 10 of 14 attempts, including 3 of 5 three-pointers. He was 12 of 16 on free throws and had six assists in 33 minutes.

“What helps Markelle is his length,” Romar said. “He’s 6-4 and he has a 6-10 wingspan and it allows him to shoot over people.

“And then he’s very, very athletic. He has a high basketball IQ. It’s almost like he’s computer generated or something. And on top of that, he’s a great teammate and he’s extremely coachable. So he has the whole package.”

Whenever Washington needed a critical basket, Fultz came up with a play.

The Huskies were down 29-23 — their largest deficit — with 9:13 left in the first half. Washington closed the first half with a 20-13 run to lead 53-42 at halftime.

Washington led by 11 points (57-46) early in the second half, but gave away its advantage when CSF used a 17-6 run to tie it up 68-68.

The Huskies had trouble pulling away from the Titans until Fultz took over in the final minutes.

He flushed back-to-back monster fast break dunks that brought the crowd to its feet and put Washington up 91-78 with 3:51 left. The Titans never made another run.

Washington (1-1) leaned heavily on Fultz, who led a high-octane attack and Cal State Fullerton (2-1) simply could not keep pace.

The Huskies also received 17 points from David Crisp while Matisse Thybulle had 15, Malik Dime 14 and Dominic Green 11.

“We just got to play around him and play with him,” Green said when asked about Fultz. “I think we’re going to be good.”

Desperate to erase the pain from a head-scratching season-opening 98-90 loss to Yale, the Huskies needed to get into the win column and steer the conversation away from their high-yielding defense.

For a night, Washington, which was out-rebounded 42-29 in the opener, fixed its rebounding troubles. The Huskies punished the smaller Titans on the glass and out-rebounded CSF 20-5 in the first half, including a 7-0 edge in offensive rebounds.

Washington finished with 36 rebounds and Cal State Fullerton had 19. The Huskies held the Titans to just two offensive rebounds.

Thanks to Thybulle, UW shut down Cal State Fullerton guard Tre’ Coggins in the second half. He had 20 points at halftime but finished with 23.

Still, CSF shot 50.9 percent from the field and scored 88 points — 16 more than Romar likes to give up.

Both teams also had 27 fouls and the Titans attempted 36 free throws.

“Progress was made, progress was definitely made,” he said. “Our level of physicality went up. Our defensive intensity went up. We didn’t allow them to get much in transition. Our guys boxed out and did a better job collectively going to the backboards.

“We still have a ways to go, but we did see progress.”