Washington women cruise to 3rd straight win, tie for 1st in Pac-12

After losing their last home outing two weeks ago, the Huskies knew they needed help to catch Pac-12 leader Oregon State and perhaps claim their first conference title in 16 years.

After Friday’s 91-55 dismantling of Arizona, the No. 10 Washington women’s basketball team discovered the Beavers lost by 20 points, which created a three-way logjam atop the Pac-12 standings with Stanford.

“To be 13 games in and to be in first place waking up in the morning, a tie or whatever it’s going to be, it feels good for our team,” coach Mike Neighbors said. “And it also shows you how deep our league is. On game night, anybody can beat anybody anywhere.”

The Huskies held a five-point lead after the first quarter and the Wildcats may have harbored hopes of pulling off an upset on a night when a handful of road underdogs prevailed in the Pac-12.

However, Washington outscored Arizona 30-4 in the second quarter, which turned a relatively tight game into a rout.

The Huskies draw a lot of attention because of their high-octane offense, which entered the game ranked sixth among NCAA Division I teams while averaging 86.1 points.

Their defense is often overlooked, but for eight blistering minutes Friday, Washington drew ovations from the 4,088 at Alaska Airlines Arena for their defensive stops, rebounds and steals.

Washington led 21-16 after the first quarter before burying Arizona with a flurry of knockout blows and taking a 51-20 advantage into halftime.

The Huskies ended the first half scoring 21 unanswered points.

After Katie Collier knocked down a pair of midrange jumpers in the third quarter to extend UW’s run to 25-0, LaBrittney Jones snapped Arizona’s drought with a jumper at the 6:52 mark.

Washington cruised to its third straight win.

“Our defense really buckled down and started to get stops,” Neighbors said. “Then we ran in transition and we got really good looks in transition. I thought we were probably our most efficient in the first 30 minutes of the game all year.”

If Neighbors could dole out the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year award, he’d cut it in half for Chantel Osahor and Natalie Romeo.

Osahor, the nation’s leading rebounder, collected 19 boards and had 14 points despite early foul trouble.

“She finishes and gets stops,” Neighbors said of Osahor. “And the job that Natalie does on the defensive assignment, they went 1 for 12 tonight (on her). They’re shooting under 15 percent, the people that she guards.”

Washington’s defense was good — Arizona shot 28.8 percent from the field — and the Huskies didn’t need a heroic performance from star Kelsey Plum.

Still, she finished with 22 points — her season low, which was eight fewer than her nation’s best scoring average. Plum also had seven assists and five rebounds in 29 minutes, which was her shortest outing since the season opener.

Romeo, who sank three three-pointers, and Aarion McDonald each tallied 13 points.

The Wildcats kept things close for a while before succumbing to a disastrous second period in which they missed 14 of 16 shots. Arizona lost its seventh straight game and fell to 11-13, 2-11.

Meanwhile, the Huskies (23-3) moved into a first-place tie in the Pac-12 at 11-2 with No. 8 Stanford (21-4) and No. 9 Oregon State (22-3).