Hannes Steinbach’s historic night helps Washington down USC
Zoom Diallo recorded career highs of 26 points and nine rebounds and Hannes Steinbach collected the fourth-most rebounds in program history as Washington rallied for a convincing 91-72 victory over Southern California on Wednesday night in Big Ten play at Seattle.
Steinbach had 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting and a career-best 24 rebounds while setting a Big Ten freshman record with 19 double-doubles. He surpassed the mark set by former Ohio State standout Jared Sullinger (2010-11).
Quimari Peterson scored 13 points and Wesley Yates III added 11 for the Huskies (15-15, 7-12 Big Ten), who outscored the Trojans by 21 points over the final 13-plus minutes.
Alijah Arenas had 19 points and seven rebounds and Ezra Ausar registered 17 points and 11 boards for USC (18-12, 7-12), which lost its sixth consecutive game. Jacob Cofie and Jordan Marsh added 14 points apiece in the loss.
The Trojans were playing their first game since top player Chad Baker-Mazara was dismissed from the program on Sunday.
Washington shot 48.1% from the field, including 7 of 30 from 3-point range. The Huskies held a 46-37 rebounding edge while sweeping two games from USC this season after losing the previous 11.
The Trojans connected on 37.5% of their attempts and made 4 of 19 from behind the arc.
The Huskies led for just 48 seconds of the first half but a 3-pointer by Peterson and a driving layup by Yates tied the score at 52 with 13:18 remaining in the contest.
The Trojans went back ahead on a basket by Arenas seven seconds later before Washington began its crushing run.
It began with 10 consecutive points. Diallo scored the next first six and Yates drove for a layup. Diallo then hit a jumper to give the Huskies an eight-point lead with 9:35 to play.
USC cut the deficit in half before Steinbach converted a three-point play to give Washington a 67-60 lead with 7:21 left.
A short time later, Peterson buried a corner 3-pointer and Steinbach followed his own miss to push the lead to 11 with 6:07 remaining.
The Trojans were later within seven before Washington's Courtland Muldrew converted two three-point plays during a 13-0 burst. The Huskies increased their lead to 17 on Diallo's dunk with 2:54 left and Nikola Dzepina added a trey 38 seconds later to make it 85-65.
Arenas scored 13 points in the first half as the Trojans led 43-40 at the break.
Steinbach reached the milestone double-double record with 15 points and 13 rebounds in the half.