Fouls, bad shooting stall Redhawks in crushing 123-76 defeat at UW

After all the hype on campus and in the media, the Redhawks weren't up to the challenge in any aspect on Tuesday. The men's basketball team was obliterated 123-76 in its cross-town rivalry game with the University of Washington Huskies, the worst loss of the season by far.


The game started out horribly for Seattle U; none of the players were able to make any shots, and the Huskies had 18 before the Redhawks were able to get any points on the board. UW dominated the entire first half, putting up a staggering 61 points to the Redhawks' 20.


UW forward Quincy Pondexter went into the locker room at halftime having scored more points than the entire Redhawk team. He ended the game leading the Huskies with 27 points and 11 rebounds.


"We pulled out everything we had in the bag and couldn't get a shot up," head coach Cameron Dollar said. "You just gotta give them credit. I mean they came out, they punched and they did their job."


The Huskies dominated on both sides of the ball. The Redhawks struggled on defense, allowing Husky players to score on almost every possession in the first half, as well as on offense, where frequent turnovers and a lack of offensive rebounds only compounded their poor shooting percentages. Dollar made frequent substitutions in an effort to get the game moving, but it seemed that none of the Redhawks were able to make anything happen. 

"I can't say we were too nervous, we were just too hyped," junior forward Charles Garcia said. "We should've let the game come to us."


Garcia looked frustrated throughout most of the game, missing many easy shots and committing five of the Redhawks' 29 turnovers. He didn't score for most of the first half, and his performance even prompted Husky fans to chant the ABC's at him and yell "there are scouts here." Like he didn't know.


"We just gotta keep playing, play by play," sophomore guard Cervante Burrell said. "Even though we got down by 20, 25, 30, we still gotta keep fighting, that's what we did in the second half."


Seattle U improved significantly in the shooting department in the second half, but both teams had trouble with fouls, seemingly going back and forth to each other's free throw lines repeatedly. More than half of the team fouled out, leaving the Redhawks with only four players on the court for the last two minutes of the game. 

"It was kind of funny," Burrell said about playing with only four. "As bad as we were losing, I felt like that was the highlight of the game."


Bank of America Arena was emptying out with 10 minutes left, as the Huskies continued to keep their 40-point lead. The Redhawks were finally able to somewhat keep up, but the hole they had dug for themselves in the first half was just too deep. Most Seattle U fans were gone long before the game was over, leaving only a small group of RedZone members to cheer.


The Redhawks leading scorers were Burrell and Garcia with 18 and 20 points, and even they struggled with only 6 of 24 and 4 of 18 two pointers, respectively. Overall, the team was just 30.3 percent on two-pointers and 26.3 percent on threes, the lowest percentage of twos in a game so far this season.


"We gotta get back to work, forget about this one and get ready to go for Idaho." Dollar said. "We're burning that game film. We aren't looking at this one."


After the loss to UW, Seattle U's record falls to 9-12. The Huskies record stands at 13-7.
The Redhawks take on the University of Idaho Jan. 30 at KeyArena. Tip-off is at 7:10 p.m.


Angelo may be reached at webmaster@su-spectator.com