SEATTLE — Isaiah Stewart dominated on the interior and scored 16 points, Quade Green added 11 points on 5-for-5 shooting, and No. 25 Washington rebounded from its first loss of the season with a 72-53 win over Maine on Tuesday night.
The Huskies (3-1) were handed their first setback over the weekend in a 75-62 loss to No. 20 Tennessee on a neutral court in Toronto, but began a stretch of three games in six days with a convincing victory where Washington finally found a rhythm at the offensive end.
The Huskies shot a season-best 46 percent despite going just 3 of 15 on 3-point attempts. Stewart, the Huskies’ bruising 6-foot-9 freshman, overpowered the Bears in the paint. But getting Green going offensively was an important development as he is Washington’s most experienced guard. The Kentucky transfer was shooting just 30 percent from the field through the first three games.
Andrew Fleming and Nedeljko Prijovic led the Black Bears (1-3) with 18 points each. Maine was unable to overcome shooting just 33 percent and committing 14 turnovers in the first half.
Washington started sluggishly for the fourth straight game, but quickly got its offense ignited thanks to Nahziah Carter. Washington scored 15 straight points midway through the first half, including a trio of highlight dunks from the junior. Carter’s first came off a lob from Jaden McDaniels. He added another lob dunk from Green and capped his five minutes of highlights with a windmill dunk on a breakaway that gave Washington a 32-13 lead.
Peter Stumer finally snapped the run with a 3 for the Black Bears, but any chance Maine had of keeping the game close was gone. Washington led 36-18 at halftime and by as many as 24 in the second half.
BIG PICTURE
Washington: Carter finished with just eight points, all of them coming on dunks. That’s 10 points below his season average of 18.3 coming into the game. … McDaniels was just 4-for-17 shooting, but finished with 11 points. … The Huskies reached 70 points for the first time this season. … Freshmen Marcus Tsohonis and RaeQuan Battle saw their first action of the season.
Maine: The Black Bears concluded a rare cross-country road trip with an expected result. Maine fell at Portland last Saturday before making the trip to Seattle. The upcoming schedule won’t get much easier for Maine with upcoming games at Connecticut and at defending national champion Virginia. The trip to the Northwest isn’t Maine’s longest of the season. The Bears will travel to Hawaii for a game on Dec. 29.
UP NEXT
The Huskies host Montana on Friday.
