Washington falls to USC in the Pac-12 Tournament in Hopkins’ final game

The Huskies ended the Mike Hopkins era with a loss to USC in the Pac-12 Tournament.

The Washington Huskies made 69 percent of their shots from three-point range in the first half, but it still wasn’t enough to overcome the USC Trojans, who opened the Pac-12 Tournament with an 80-74 victory.

Since the Huskies won’t make the NCAA Tournament and most likely will not be invited to any other postseason play, that makes Wednesday’s matchup in Las Vegas the final game of Mike Hopkins’ seven year stint at Washington.

The majority of the second half looked like a movie Husky fans had seen too many times during Hopkins’ tenure. Washington turned the ball over 15 times and struggled to muster any sort of consistent offensive attack late in the game.

After Moses Wood hit a buzzer beating three-pointer to end the first half, the Huskies took a five point lead into the locker room but couldn’t stop the Trojans and the game’s leading scorer Boogie Ellis, who had 25 points and 3 steals.

Wood led the Huskies with 14 points and 4 three-pointers in the first half, the team only made two threes in the second, one courtesy of Wood who ended the game with 17 points.

The conference’s leading scorer, Keion Brooks Jr. was the focal point of USC’s defense, who held him to just 4 made shots on 16 attempts, going 1-10 from the floor in the second half. Sahvir Wheeler led the Huskies with 20 points and he was aided by another big day by the Pac-12’s Sixth Player of the Year, Koren Johnson who had 17.

Now that the Hopkins era is officially over, it appears there could be brighter days on the horizon for Washington basketball who are considered the favorites to land the up and coming Danny Sprinkle from Utah State as the team’s next head coach.