SEATTLE_On a night when top-ranked Kentucky made the wrong type of history and lost at home against unranked Evansville, No. 20 Washington nearly provided further proof that there's no such thing as a sure thing in college basketball.
During a tougher-than-expected 56-46 win over Mount St. Mary's, the Huskies fired up errant shots at the start and in some cases quite literally kicked the ball away in an error-filled first half that resulted in an 21-21 tie at the break and a sobering halftime speech.
"I just told them, I just want you to compete," coach Mike Hopkins said. "There are three things you got to do. Play hard, play smart and play together.
"I didn't think we played hard in the first half. We had to play harder. We had to compete. I thought in the second half, there was more of an uptick."
Despite two highlight dunks from Nahziah Carter that got a dormant Alaska Airlines Arena buzzing and a game-high 16 points from Isaiah Stewart, the Huskies never truly found their offensive rhythm Tuesday night.
Ultimately, Washington (2-0) scored enough to pull away at the end, but the second-half recovery isn't going to inspire any UW fan to rush and make Final Four reservations for Atlanta.
"We're going to have a lot of ups and downs with this team," Hopkins said. "There's going to be a lot of learning experiences, we're lucky today that we were able to win and learn rather than lose and learn."
It's early in the season, but two things appear to be true about Washington, which upset then-No. 16 Baylor 67-64 last Friday.
The Huskies are long, athletic and a menace defensively.
But then, you already knew that and it was hardly a surprise that UW blocked 11 shots _ including five from Stewart _ and held the Mountaineers to 29.1% shooting from the field.
What's also becoming clear is despite a handful of NBA prospects, the Huskies have serious offensive deficiencies that could undermine a season filled with promise.
It's one thing to struggle on the road against a quality team like Baylor, but it's potentially troublesome when Mount St. Mary's shuts down UW's offense in front of a stunned crowd of 7,480 at Alaska Airlines Arena.
"It's still a work in progress," Carter said, who finished with 14 points, about UW's offense. "As coach tells us, we got a lot of talent on our team and we still have to figure out how to play with each other better as far as like swinging the ball, playing unselfish and knowing when to be selfish."
It took the Huskies nearly 30 minutes before solving Mount St. Mary's pesky defense that forced 15 turnovers and held UW to 5-of-18 shooting on three-pointers.
Washington trailed 34-33 midway in the second half when Hameir Wright hit a three-pointer with 10:37 left that put UW up for good and began a 23-12 run.
The spurt was highlighted by a pair of dunks from Carter, including a one-handed slam over 6-4 guard Naim Miller that sent the crowd into a frenzy and gave UW a 40-34 lead at the 9:35 mark.
