UW men’s basketball suffers largest blowout since 2002 at Michigan State

Welcome to the Big Ten, Washington.

The Husky men’s basketball team hadn’t truly experienced what life is going to be like in their new conference considering they played three league games at home while the other was in Los Angeles against former Pac-12 rival UCLA.

But after traveling nearly 3,000 miles, the Huskies got their first real taste of Big Ten hoops on Thursday night and suffered a humbling 88-54 loss against No. 16 Michigan State.

The 34-point blowout is tied for UW’s largest margin of defeat since 2002.

“Our competitive spirit wasn’t there tonight with our physicality and our toughness in order to play with Michigan State,” coach Danny Sprinkle said. “We knew what we were coming into as a staff and tried to convey that to the players and obviously didn’t do a good enough job in doing that.”

By the time Spartans sophomore forward Coen Carr flew to the rim for a thunderous dunk that whipped the capacity crowd of 14,797 at Breslin Center into a frenzy, MSU capped a 16-0 run and put the finishing touches on an early knockout with 10:41 left in the first half.

“He might be the most athletic player in the country,” Sprinkle said. “He’s a momentum player when he gets out and gets those dunks and gets the crowd rocking. The crowd is rocking anyway, but when he does that it’s special.”

The Huskies are no strangers to slow starts.

Washington missed nine of its first 10 shots and overcame a 17-point deficit in the first half in its last outing before falling in the final seconds 81-77 to then-No. 22 Illinois on Saturday.

Once again, UW couldn’t make a shot early in the game and missed its first 14 attempts while trailing 16-1. Backup center KC Ibekwe converted a short putback for the Huskies’ first field goal after 10½ minutes.

At that point, the game was essentially over.

Washington’s offensive struggles were encapsulated by its leading scorer Great Osobor, a 6-foot-8 forward, who had difficulty inside against the Spartans’ 7-foot senior center Szymon Zapala.

Osobor missed several layups and shots around the rim while laboring through an 0-for-8 shooting performance that produced six points.

But then, Osobor wasn’t alone.

Michigan State made life miserable for the Huskies who shot 17.2% (5 of 29) from the field, including 0 for 7 on three-pointers in the first half.

The Spartans took a commanding 42-13 lead at the break — their largest first-half advantage in 15 years.

Washington managed to find a modicum of success and shot 50% on field goals in the second half, but was still outscored 46-41 by Michigan State.

Senior guard Jaden Akins finished with a game-high 20 points, while Jeremy Fears Jr. and Jase Richardson each added 12 and Tre Holloman had 11 for the Spartans (13-2, 4-0 Big Ten), who have won eight straight games.

Meanwhile, Tyler Harris led Washington (10-6, 1-4) with 14 points. No other UW player had more than eight.

“I know Danny didn’t want to make any excuses … about (coming from) the West Coast,” Spartans coach Tom Izzo said, referring to the Huskies’ first trip to East Lansing, Mich., since 1996. “Until you go through it, you don’t know what it’s like, but college guys are going to struggle with that a little bit.

“It just wasn’t his night and it was ours, so you’re going to see that team still is going to play some good basketball and hopefully we grow from this.”

Sprinkle didn’t blame the lopsided loss on travel fatigue.

“That’s not an excuse at all,” he said. “We had plenty of rest. We got here Tuesday night. We just got our butts kicked tonight. I wish I could blame it on that.

“Maybe after the third, fourth trip back and forth from west to east coast, but tonight they just out-toughed us. They outcompeted us. They played with a lot better energy and effort than we did.”

Note

— UW freshman forward Dominique Diomande, who signed last month, joined the Huskies this week at the start of their two-game road trip. He was inactive Thursday and will not dress for Sunday’s game at No. 24 Michigan.

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