The Washington Huskies (13-13, 5-10 Big Ten) spent Valentine’s Day playing the game they love, and the day was made sweeter by securing a 69-57 victory over Minnesota. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak that included explainable losses to Iowa and UCLA, followed by an ugly defeat to Penn State.
Washington was paced by star freshman Hannes Steinbach. A year from now, Steinbach could find himself playing in the NBA’s Rising Stars Challenge. He’s giving Big Ten coaches headaches in the meantime. Steinbach poured in 26 points on 12-17 shooting from the field. He added nine rebounds. The first-year man has been as good as advertised and will be one of the more memorable players to have donned a UW jersey.
The only other player to score in double figures was sophomore Zoom Diallo. What’s most impressive about his performance is his short-term memory. He had a brutal outing against Penn State, going 3-15 from the field and finishing with eight points and five turnovers. He was an entirely different player against Minnesota, finishing with 17 on 7-8 shooting, along with four assists and three rebounds.
The game’s most unexpected performance came from true freshman Courtland Muldrew. He logged 22 minutes, second-highest all season, and was servicable. He added six points and five rebounds, with just one turnover.
“That’s the Courtland that we need,” Diallo said after the win. “That’s the Courtland that we know he can be, just that energy that sparked defensively, and as you can see, as he started making plays, you see how energetic he got. So that’s what we need for the team, that got everybody going, that got everybody’s confidence moving, but that’s Coourtland Muldrew for you. And he needs to keep playing like that, and we’re going to continue to give him confidence. And when he keeps playing like that, he’s going to help us a lot.”
What started as a close game took a sharp turn when Muldrew buried a stepback jumper to put UW up 27-26 with 3:57 left in the opening half. The Gophers didn’t score for the rest of the half as UW built a 39-26 lead. Washington continued that momentum in the second half and never let the Gophers get within striking distance, making for a comfortable Saturday evening at HecEd.
“Proud of our guys on a short turnaround after a tough loss the other night, where we just couldn’t muster up energy,” Sprinkle said postgame. “I thought our guys did a tremendous job bouncing back and coming back to compete, coming back with some energy tonight.”
The final stretch of the season is underway. The Huskies will rest until next Saturday’s bout with Maryland (10-14) on the road. The Huskies then play Rutgers (9-15) the following Tuesday. The season finale will be a home game on Saturday, Feb. 28 against Wisconsin (18-7).