Huskies’ zone befuddles Aggies

Washington 78, Utah State 61

Neither Washington nor Utah State had been to the NCAA Tournament since 2011, meaning not one roster player — excepting graduate or fifth-year players — was in high school yet.

Current Washington coach Mike Hopkins was in his 12th NCAA Tournament as an assistant for Jim Boeheim at Syracuse at the time. And on Friday night, Hopkins earned his first tournament win as a head coach.

Using an extended 2-3 zone that is a staple of Boeheim’s Syracuse teams, Washington disrupted the flow of Utah State’s offense on the way to a 78-61 victory in a first-round NCAA Midwest Regional game at Nationwide Arena.

Noah Dickerson led the Huskies with 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Pac-12 player of the year Jaylen Nowell scored 19. The Huskies limited Utah State to 26.7 percent shooting in the second half and 35.2 percent for the game.

For an 8-9 game, the outcome was never really in doubt. Washington took a 12-point lead into halftime and never Washington’s David Crisp goes up for a shot after getting fouled by Utah State’s Sam Merrill. trailed afterward.

The job the Huskies did against Mountain West player of the year Sam Merrill should be studied by teams next season. He was 0 for 3 in the first half and was limited to 10 points. Matisse Thybulle, the Pac-12 defensive player of the year, had five steals and a block on Merrill that set the tone in the first half.

“We knew what he’s capable of and we weren’t going to let him get it,” Thybulle said.

Utah State did make its run. Merrill knocked down one of his two threes to cut the deficit to one midway through the second half, prompting a Washington timeout.

“(Hopkins) said, ‘We knew they were going to make this run,’ Nowell said. “That’s what made us kind of relax a little

bit more because he just honestly knew. So when they did, we were just ready to come down and make a run of our own.”

Washington outscored the Aggies 24-8 for the remaining 9:54.

Hopkins won 43 games in the NCAA Tournament as an assistant at Syracuse. He still remembers the first one and riding the high of that tournament to the national championship game.

Ultimately, that’s what he came to Washington to do, and he wasn’t coy about it.

“The greatest thing that makes this great tournament is you have a chance to win a national championship,” Hopkins said. “I know our standard is going to be that’s what we fight for.”