If Washington is going to make a run and reach the NCAA Tournament bubble, now is the time.
Of the Huskies’ seven remaining Big Ten Conference games, five are against teams they are either tied with or below them in the standings.
That stretch starts Wednesday night when the Huskies (12-12 overall, 4-9 Big Ten) play host to Penn State (10-14, 1-12) in Seattle.
Washington also has matchups against Minnesota (4-9 in conference), Maryland (2-10), Rutgers (2-11) and Oregon (1-12) remaining, with games against Wisconsin (8-4) and USC (7-6) the only opponents above them in the standings.
The Huskies nearly posted a big road victory Saturday before falling to UCLA 77-73.
“I’m proud of our guys’ effort, but at the end of the day it’s not good enough,” Washington coach Danny Sprinkle said. “It’s just not. We have to break through.”
Sprinkle lamented his team’s 13 turnovers compared to just seven by UCLA and 12-of-18 shooting from the free-throw line. The Huskies’ turnovers led to 20 points for the Bruins.
“You can’t do it against good teams. Not (against) any Big Ten team on the road,” Sprinkle said.
Wesley Yates III scored a team-high 21 points for the Huskies and Hannes Steinbach added 13 points and seven rebounds. Quimari Peterson came off the bench and scored 12, making three 3-pointers, and had seven assists.
The Nittany Lions beat Minnesota 77-75 on Feb. 1 for their first conference victory of the season. After a lopsided loss to at Michigan, they dropped a 77-75 decision to visiting USC on Sunday after leading by 12 points in the second half.
Freddie Dilione V led Penn State with 23 points against the Trojans.
“We had stretches of playing winning basketball (Sunday),” Penn State coach Mike Rhoades said. “We didn’t have enough of it. Our margin of error is thin.”
Like Sprinkle, Rhoades pointed to turnovers and free throws. The Nittany Lions gave the ball away 17 times — nearly twice their average of 9.8 — and went 9 of 15 at the line.
“You’ve got to make your free throws, especially the guys that are getting fouled the most, and we got to take care of the basketball,” Rhoades said. “That really hurt.”
