Two teams that have found their offenses of late could be destined for a high-scoring affair when California and Washington tangle in Pac-12 play Saturday afternoon at Seattle.
The Huskies (10-8, 2-5 Pac-12) rode a powerful performance from Braxton Meah to an 86-69 home romp over Stanford on Thursday night.
Meah made eight of his 10 shots en route to a career-high 21 points, helping Washington post its second-biggest output of the season. Seven of the junior’s eight hoops were dunks.
Keion Brooks Jr. chipped in with 19 points and Koren Johnson had 15 points with four made 3-pointers as the Huskies shot 55.9 percent overall and 39.1 percent from 3-point range.
“We didn’t do anything out of the ordinary,” Brooks said after watching his team put up 20 more points than it had averaged in losses at Arizona and Arizona State last week. “Everybody starred in their role. Everybody played with energy and fight. That stuff carries over.”
Cal (3-14, 2-4) will take the court a bit more rested than Washington, having played the opener of its two-game Pacific Northwest swing on Wednesday. The Golden Bears dropped that game 66-51 at Washington State.
Coming off consecutive wins over Colorado and Stanford, when they averaged 86.0 points, the Golden Bears looked to be in good shape at halftime against the Cougars, trailing just 31-30 after making five of their first nine 3-point attempts.
But the rim at the other end of the court was not as kind in the second half, when Cal missed all 11 of its long-range attempts and trailed by as many as 23 points.
“We had some guys act very immature. We’ve got some growing up to do,” Cal coach Mark Fox said. “We started the second half very poorly and made multiple errors defensively that cost us 3-pointers. Then we didn’t make a 3.”
DeJuan Clayton, who poured in 26 points in his previous game against Stanford, was held to just six points against the Cougars on 2-of-7 shooting.
–Field Level Media