No. 11 Auburn raced to an 18-point halftime lead en route to an 88-66 victory over No. 25 Washington on Friday night.
AUBURN, Ala. — Chuma Okeke had 19 points and 10 rebounds and Samir Doughty scored 18 to lead No. 11 Auburn to an 88-66 victory over No. 25 Washington on Friday night.
The Tigers (2-0) raced to an 18-point halftime lead and pushed it to 30 in their first home win over a ranked nonconference team in nearly 48 years.
Jared Harper and Bryce Brown both scored 13 points for the Tigers. Harper also had five assists.
“We knew they were really aggressive,” UW coach Mike Hopkins said. “We wanted to take away the threes, so we got hurt on both areas. If we take away the threes, they got 15 to 20 points on offensive rebounds. … They were physical and they were disruptive. That’s a really good basketball team.”
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Center Austin Wiley saw his first action in more than a season, scoring five points in 13 minutes. Wiley, who was forced to sit out last season as part of a federal probe into corruption in college basketball, missed the opener with a left-foot injury. He entered with 16:56 left in the first half to a huge ovation at Auburn Arena.
Jaylen Nowell had 16 points for Washington on 7-of-9 shooting. Nahziah Carter also scored 16 off the bench. David Crisp scored 10 points for the Huskies.
Noah Dickerson, an Atlanta native, had 12 points before fouling out midway through the second half. He played just 16 minutes and drew a technical for his celebration of a first-half dunk.
“Being close to home with family members, it was pretty tough for him,” Hopkins said. “When he’s been great, we’ve been great. Today we needed him in the game. When your best player gets in foul trouble early, it’s never a good sign. … They went at him and had a good game plan.”
It was just the sixth time Auburn has hosted a ranked nonconference opponent and the first win over one since beating then-No. 19 North Carolina State on Dec. 5, 1970.
“It’s hard to come from behind in a place like this,” Hopkins said. “But you’ve got to give Auburn a lot of credit. They forced us into turnovers. They were aggressive on the offensive glass. Those are two areas that we just weren’t great tonight and they were.”
Huskies schedule Baylor
Washington will play Baylor in next year’s Armed Forces Classic in Anchorage, Alaska.
The nonconference game between the Pac-12 and Big 12 teams will take place at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Nov. 8, 2019.
It will be just the fourth meeting between the Huskies and Bears and the first since 1955. UW leads 2-1 in all-time matchups.
Led by longtime coach Scott Drew, Baylor has made seven NCAA tournament appearances in the past 11 seasons. During that span, the Bears have never had a losing season while winning at least 18 games.
Baylor (0-1) had a streak of four straight trips to the NCAAs snapped last season when it finished 19-15.
NoteS
• Washington made 25 of 45 shots (55.6 percent) against Auburn but was outrebounded 39-21.
• Auburn got off to another fast start, scoring 14 straight after Washington hit the first basket. Tigers are 15-0 at Auburn Arena the past two seasons against nonconference opponents.