University of Washington
Western Washington
Huskies Own The Glass In Exhibition Win Over Western Washington
November 03, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 3, 2010
Western Washington Exhibition Gallery | Postgame Press Conference
SEATTLE - For Mollie Williams, it makes no difference if she starts or comes off the bench. The only distinction, she said, is whether you get to have your name called by the public address announcer.
While the junior might not have placed any added importance to her starting role, her play suggested otherwise. Williams led the Huskies in both scoring and rebounding, tallying 14 and 16 respectively in her team's 63-46 exhibition win over D-II opponent Western Washington on Wednesday night. Those numbers would be career-highs for her had this been a regular-season game.
Afterward, Husky head coach Tia Jackson said she picked Williams as one of her starting forwards because she had "earned it" after 21 practices. What the Huskies do on the practice court is largely competition based, and Jackson liked how Williams routinely held her own against a physical group of male practice players. As a whole, the Huskies dominated on the glass, out-rebounding the smaller Vikings 53-23, taking cues from the energetic Williams.
"One of the biggest differences is you have to have more focus," Williams said when asked about her new role, "because you're out there first and you have to show the people who are on the bench coming in for you how to keep tempo and go in and what is expected for our team."
To complement Williams on offense, the Huskies had help from Kristi Kingma (11 points) and Sarah Morton (13 points). A duo of heralded freshmen from the Puget Sound region, Mercedes Wetmore and Marjorie Heard, made impressive debuts as well. Heard finished the game with six points and seven boards, while Wetmore (4 points) looked at ease running the offense.
Exhibitions also allow teams to work out the kinks, and the Huskies did just that in shrugging off a slow first half. Jackson attributed the jitters to nervous butterflies, as the Huskies were playing for the first time in front of a sizeable crowd.
They were also tested by their opposition. The Vikings are one of the top teams in the GNAC, finishing second behind perennial power Seattle Pacific last season and making the NCAA Tournament. And they came into Hec Ed determined to impress family and friends who made the short trip down from Bellingham, frustrating a Husky team that couldn't stay out of foul trouble.
Trailing 19-14 in the first half, the Huskies took over. Kingma swiped the ball from a Vikings' guard and then tipped the pass to a streaking Morton, who coasted in for a layup. Washington would continue the momentum, putting together a 9-0 run to take control of the game. The floodgates opened in the second half, with UW shooting 53.6 percent in the second frame.
Defense was another aspect where Jackson was pleased with the effort. The Huskies held the Vikings to just 31 percent shooting, and put the handcuffs on star WWU senior Amanda Dunbar, limiting her to just 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting.
"I'm very proud of our defensive effort in that regard," Jackson said. "So, of course, we saw some things that we need to pick up on, but we also saw a lot of things that we did well."
One area where the Huskies will look to improve is undoubtedly free-throw shooting. UW made just 11-of-25 from the line, and Jackson will make that a practice priority when the team reconvenes on Friday. But the positives far outweighed the concerns, and it was evident with the players as they laughed and grinned throughout the postgame news conference.
"We were all pumped up," Morton said. "Just playing together, finally, with our uniforms on, under the lights, was just a little jittery. I think, for the most part, we handled ourselves pretty well."
