Washington males, regardless of lacking three gamers, discover solution to beat North Florida

All night time, the Huskies appeared for one thing — something — to present them a spark and supply the Alaska Airlines Arena crowd a purpose to cheer. 

PJ Fuller II produced a spotlight early within the second half when he dived close to midcourt to gather a turnover and flipped a cross from the ground to a darting Keyon Menifield for a fast-break dunk. 

Franck Kepnang and Braxton Meah flushed a handful of alley-oop slams, which sustained Washington’s sputtering offense that was lacking main scorer Keion Brooks Jr., level guard Noah Williams and backup ahead Jackson Grant to accidents. 

But it was Menifield who offered the performs that mattered most and carried the Washington males’s basketball staff to a hard-fought 75-67 nonconference victory towards North Florida and improved to 2-0. 

The rail-thin freshman guard from Flint, Michigan, completed a blinding collegiate beginning debut with 21 factors on 7-for-21 taking pictures, three assists and two rebounds. 

Down 56-53, Menifield drained a nook three-pointer in entrance of the Husky bench that tied it at 56-56. 

Jamal Bey, who recovered from a 1-for-5 taking pictures show within the first half, scored 11 of his 14 factors within the second half, together with a spurt of seven factors in 1½ minutes to go forward 65-61 with 3:58 remaining  

And on the finish, coach Mike Hopkins entrusted Menifield to orchestrate the offense and he responded with daring drives to the basket for layups, together with a high-arcing shot within the paint that bounced off the rim for a 71-67 lead with 44.5 seconds left. 

Whenever Menifield missed, Kepnang grabbed the offensive rebound for putbacks whereas ending with 16 factors and 9 boards. 

Washington shot 25.6%, together with one among 10 on three-pointers within the first half and trailed 34-28 on the break. 

In the second half, the Huskies transformed 57.6% from the sphere and held the Ospreys to 33.3%. 

It’s been a protracted highway journey for North Florida (0-2), which misplaced 104-63 Monday at No. 2 Gonzaga. The Ospreys had been picked fifth within the 14-team ASUN preseason coaches ballot. 

Washington returns to motion at 7 p.m. Monday for a nonconference house sport towards Utah Tech.