Wynn Gets First Win With UW at Huskies Down BYU, 80-72

Wednesday, November 15

Seattle, WA

7:00 PM

University of Washington

1-1

Brigham Young

1-1

BYU

Washington

November 15, 2017 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

SEATTLE --- Amber Melgoza scored a career-high 20 points and Mai-Loni Henson and Khayla Rooks each added 13 points as Washington gave Head Coach Jody Wynn her first victory as a Husky with an 80-72 win over BYU on Wednesday night.

The Huskies improve to 1-1 on the season with the victory while the Cougars fall to 1-1.

Melgoza scored 14 of her 20 points in the second quarter finishing with a team-high eight rebounds including five on the offensive glass. Her biggest one came late in the fourth quarter as Washington saw a 16-point, 3rd-quarter whittled down to just six with 37 seconds left. After a pair of missed free throws by the Huskies, Melgoza pulled down the offensive rebound and got it out to Rooks, who made her two from the stripe to help seal the win.

"I'm proud of the entire team for our bounce-back and the resiliency we showed out there tonight," said Wynn. "On each end of the floor we played as a unit. Yeah we made mistakes--we are going to make mistakes--but our effort and our intensity and our togetherness made up for those mistakes on the defensive end. On the offensive end, we moved the ball and every quarter that ball was moving. We played with more purpose on both sides of the ball tonight."

Melgoza was one of five players to score in double-figures for the Huskies with freshman Alexis Griggsby adding 11 and Jenna Moser contributing 10. Moser also had three steals and three blocks in 29 minutes on the floor.

"We don't want to have a program with just one kid or two kids who have to carry the load," said Wynn. "We want all of our players to be able to shoot and score the ball. We have to take good team shots: 'our' shots, not 'my' shots. We did that much better this evening than we did in our opener. It led to higher percentage shots. Our shot selection was better and the ball went in more because of it."

Washington opened the game with a three by Rooks in the teams' first possession and led 9-6 through the first three minutes thanks to a tough offensive rebound and putback by Griggsby.

The Huskies spread their lead to eight with a 11-4 run over a 2:11 stretch capped by back-to-back three-pointers by Moser to go up 18-10 with 1:52 to go. However, BYU would close out the quarter on a 7-2 run to end the quarter trailing by just three at 20-17.

In the second, Washington got into foul trouble early in the half and BYU made a move to close within two at 26-24. The Huskies answered right back as Melgoza drained a three followed by a triple from Henson one minute later to stretch the UW lead back to 32-26 at the 5:44 mark. The Huskies would stretch their lead to as many as eight and closed the half with a pair of free throws by Rooks to hold a 49-42 lead at the break.

Melgoza caught fire in the quarter, scoring 14 of the team's 29 points in the quarter on 5-of-6 shooting including going 4-for-5 from long distance.

She kept things going in the second half, opening the period with a mid-range jumper on UW's first possession as the Huskies opened up a 51-42 lead early on.

The teams went back and forth over the next four minutes until Griggsby took over. The freshman scored six-straight Husky points to start a 10-3 run which put Washington up 67-51 with 2:22 left in the period. The Huskies closed out the third with a 72-58 lead after receiving nine points from Griggsby in the quarter.

Despite the big lead, the game got close in the fourth quarter. Washington struggled from the field, going 0-of-11 over the final 10 minutes. The Huskies would clamp down on defense though, limiting the Cougars to just five field goals and only one from three-point range. Washington would score eight points all from the free throw line to hang on.

With 1:41 to go, the Cougars narrowed the gap to nine on a free throw to make it 75-66. The teams would exchange free throws over the next minute before BYU drained a long three to make it a 76-70 game with 36.3 seconds left.

After being fouled, the Huskies missed both free throws on the ensuing possession, but Melgoza got a big offensive rebound and Rooks hit a pair from the charity stripe to stretch the lead back to 78-70 with 21 seconds left.

BYU would make a quick layup on the other end but Hannah Johnson converted her two free throw attempts and the Huskies forced a turnover with six seconds left on the other end to ice it.

The victory was the first career win at UW for Wynn after a disappointing loss in the season-opener.

"We came into film session on Monday morning (after the season-opening loss) and dissected that game from start to finish," Wynn said. "It wasn't us. We didn't play team basketball on either end of the court. They saw it and they truly care about each other and want each other to be successful. We didn't show that Sunday but we showed it today."

The Huskies hit the road for the next four games starting with a road trip to Ohio. Washington faces No. 9 Ohio State on Sunday at 11:00 am ET (8:00 am PT) in its first road game of the season, before heading to Las Vegas after Thanksgiving for a pair of games at the Southpoint Shootout.