The Pioneers (0-2) remained in Seattle for a West Coast swing to face the University of Washington Thursday evening. The Huskies were coming off a 44-point victory over the University Arkansas Pine Bluff (UABP). Denver was a big underdog and oddsmakers projected nearly a thirty-point difference between the two teams. With only six minutes to go in the game, DU trailed by only seven points, 70-63. The Huskies’ superior talent and size eventually wore down the pesky Pioneers, 84-70.
Denver got the early lead, 8-6, on a jumper by Kinsey Logan. A run by the Huskies put DU in a 15-11 hole at 12:45. Denver went on a 6-point counter, 16-15, to retake the lead. DU trailed by a point at the 10-minute mark. A 10-0 run put the Huskies up, 27-18, as DU turned the ball over and went cold from the field. DU’s Logan Kinsey picked up his second foul at 4:56 and went to the bench with 14 points, 28-23. UW went on a scoring run in the final five minutes, 37-28, at the break.
Carson Johnson struggled in the first half against the bigger Huskies with no points while turning the ball over four times. Denver had no points off the bench and was outscored 12-0 on the break. Still, they found a way to remain in contact behind the hot shooting of Logan Kinsey.
UW’s Carson Tucker caught fire from distance with a pair of trays and the lead ballooned to 48-33, four minutes into the second half. UW’s star Hann Steinbach picked up his third foul and went to the bench to give DU life, trailing by 11, 52-41. Gabe Oldham, DU’s big 6.8″ forward, picked up his 4th foul and Denver was forced to go small. Denver closed the gap and trailed by 8 points on a Jeremiah Burke layup, 60-52 at the midway mark of the second half. Carson Johnson started to catch fire, 9 points in a row, and the UW lead shrank to 7 points with 5:56 remaining, 70-63. The Huskies took over from that point forward, finding easy buckets and keeping Denver from making a scoring run. Final, 84-70.
Denver showed improvement compared to their opening effort against Seattle U. Denver kept scrapping against a physically superior team and stayed within contact for most of the game. Denver shot 55.2% from the field and turned the ball over 13 times against a talented defensive team. Logan Kinsey was outstanding for DU with 23 points and 4 rebounds. Jeremiah Burke had another solid game with 15 points and 3 rebounds and Julius Rollins finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds.
Next up, the Pioneers play at Montana State on Sunday at 1:00 pm MT.
Nice to see the improvement, and to push the Huskies a bit. I am not into moral victories, but if DU continues to work, this team should be able to beat some of the teams on its schedule this year…
DU was a 30-point underdog last night, so losing by 14 and shooting 55% against a UW Huskie team on its home floor is serious progress. To be able to bring the game within seven points with under six minutes to play shows the team has some heart and grit, too. As we know, Big 10 teams have access to an entirely different level of player in terms of size and athleticism, so hanging with them and making them sweat the deep second half in their house is something to build on for a team like DU with essentially an all-new roster, and new coaches.
We’re also seeing different DU guys leading the scoring from game to game, and that scoring depth will be vital come league play. At least two of the D-II transfers (Johnson and Kinsley) are clearly D-I level players, which is really nice to see, and was a huge question mark for me before this season.
For this DU team, the big task ahead is learning to play better defense. On this road trip, both home opponents scored over 80 points per game and that isn’t sustainable over the course of a season, and the coaches know it.
If DU can shoot 50% or more in Summit play and learn to hold teams under 70 points defensively, they will be tough to beat.
I would agree on the scoring aspect. We can already see that Johnson is going to get a lot of attention from opposing defenses. We saw his explosiveness with those 9 straight to cut the lead to 7 or whatever it was. Having those other guys be able to step up and take over will be huge for the team and take more pressure, literally and figuratively, off of him. Johnson and Kinsey can definitely play at this level. Shawn W looked good in his limited minutes last night too. Know he is coming off an injury, but excited to see more of him and what he will bring to the team.
Defensively, they are long and athletic. The rotations will get better, but they show they are willing and able to compete on that end. Would be nice if they had a 6’10 rim protector in there, but they don’t. They have rebounded very well against two bigger teams, even out rebounding Seattle. Thought a big thing last night was that Washington didn’t push our guys around on the defensive end. They were able to finish through contact, but didn’t just move our guys off their spots. Shots were contested. Oldham is strong down low.
This team is very athletic and has shown they play well together in these 2 early games. This was not the cake walk for Washington that many people expected. Bergy and his staff have done a good job getting them ready and excited to see their improvement over the season. I would not be shocked to see them do better than their projection in Summit League play and possibly “upset” a couple of these teams in non-conference play as well.
We will know more after the Montana State road game (t5th out of 10 teams in Big Sky poll) and UTSA (11th out of 13 teams in the American Athletic Conference poll). Then, we can make a more accurate apples to apples comparison.
Where is the dude who knows and loves the coach so well he calls him Berky or something. Cringe… But good job, coach, in kind of hanging with Washington. Hope it is actually a sign of competence, rather than a one off.
Are you referring to me for calling Coach, Bergy? No, I don’t know him or have even met him. I do know that others have called him Bergy and he even said in one interview that I saw that that is what most people call him. Sorry if that is “cringe” worthy. Since I have never met him and I’m not on the team I should not call him “Coach” either. I will from now on will call him “Coach Bergstrauser” or “tall gentleman with glasses on the sideline” so that I don’t come across as “loving or knowing” him and confuse people. I hope that is ok, Mr/Mrs Anonymous.