Sloppy. That’s the only way to describe the Washington Huskies’ first half against the Seattle Pacific Falcons, as the Division II team walked into Alaska Airlines Arena and took an 11-point lead into the locker room.
But, whatever Danny Sprinkle said to his team at halftime clearly resonated with his team, as the Huskies came out of the locker room and did exactly what they should to their inferior opponents. They opened the second half on a 12-2 run and cruised to a 77-62 victory after there was plenty of cause for concern early on.
“I thought our energy was off in the first half for whatever reason, we just didn’t have any juice,” coach Danny Sprinkle said after the game. “It wasn’t pretty at halftime, but credit to our guys, they’re the ones who had to go do it on the floor. We can yell and scream and do all that, but they have to go compete and play with energy to get deflections and win toughness plays and they did that. Hopefully, this is a lesson moving forward that we need to play with that second-half energy all 40 minutes.”
Senior DJ Davis responded to his coach’s passionate halftime message in a big way. After missing Washington’s 63-53 loss to Nevada, as he welcomed his newborn child with his wife, he bounced back from an 0-8 performance in the season opener against UC Davis.
The Butler transfer finished his night with 18 points, and all but 2 of those points came in the second half. He shot 6-9 from the floor, including 4-6 from behind the three-point line.
Freshman guard Jase Butler was another catalyst for the Huskies in the second half, as the one-time Illinois commit played strong defense as Sprinkle came out of the locker room and asked his team to play a full-court press, which put a lot of pressure on the Falcons.
Butler made an impressive block where he rose above everyone else on the court to deny a shot off the backboard before making a three-pointer on the other end. The lefty finished his day with 6 points, all coming in the second half.
Without center Franck Kepnang, who was in street clothes, a lot was asked of Great Osobor. The coveted transfer struggled from the floor, shooting 5-12, but was still able to muster 18 points after going 8-15 from the free throw line, adding 8 rebounds, 3 assists, a block, and 7 steals.
Osobor, like the rest of the Huskies, still has plenty to clean up, though, but showed the resilience necessary to get the victory.