Wesley Yates III and Hannes Steinbach scored 14 points apiece to lead a balanced attack as Washington cruised to a 105-69 victory against Southern Utah in a nonconference game Saturday afternoon in Seattle.
Desmond Claude and Bryson Tucker each scored 12 points, JJ Mandaquit had 11 and Zoom Diallo tallied 10 for the Huskies (7-3 overall), who shot 52.2% from the field (36 of 69), including 10 of 23 from 3-point range.
The Huskies committed just two turnovers while recording 21 assists, five each by Quimari Peterson and Mandaquit.
Elijah Duval led Southern Utah (4-8) with 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Tanner Hayhurst scored 16 and Isaiah Cottrell had 13 points. The Thunderbirds shot 45.3% (29 of 64) and were 6 of 21 from beyond the 3-point arc.
The Huskies had a 46-17 edge in bench scoring and outscored SUU 50-38 in the paint, 18-0 off turnovers and 14-4 in second-chance points.
The Huskies used a pair of 10-0 runs in the first half to take a 53-33 lead at the intermission.
Tucker, a transfer from Indiana who missed the previous six games with an ankle injury, came off the bench and scored eight points in the half, including a crowd-pleasing alley-oop dunk off a pass from Claude.
Mandaquit had to return to the locker room to get stitches in his lower lip after taking a high hit, but he made back-to-back 3-pointers to cap the second 10-0 run that closed the half.
The Huskies went 15 of 17 at the free-throw line in the first half, while the Thunderbirds didn’t have an attempt.
Washington extended its lead to as many as 39 points in the second half.
Huskies forward Nikola Dzepina, a freshman from Serbia who only arrived on campus earlier in the week, made his debut in the final five minutes. Also making his UW debut was Brandon Roy Jr., the son of the former Husky legend.
