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Huskies Stay Together, Win 57-51 In Langley’s Debut

by gohuskies.com
Nov 12, 2021

SEATTLE – The Washington women's basketball team held off a late rally to beat visiting San Diego, 57-51, during Friday night's season opener at Alaska Airlines Arena, making head coach Tina Langley victorious in her first game as the Huskies' coach.
 
Haley Van Dyke recorded the third double-double of her career with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Missy Peterson, who missed last season while recovering from an ACL injury, made a triumphant return with a team-high 13 points.
 
"This team has been locked into defense the last couple of weeks and really improved in so many areas," said Langley, who is the first UW coach to win in their debut since Chris Gobrecht in 1985. "I think that's probably the thing we're most excited about right now as a team and a staff."
 
The Toreros scored the first bucket of the third quarter to get within one point, but Washington went on a 18-3 run to open up its biggest lead of the night. UW held USD to 2-of-15 shooting in the quarter and got six points from Van Dyke and five more from Rice transfer Lauren Schwartz, who had nine total points and a career-high five steals.

 
San Diego ratcheted up its defense in the fourth quarter and fought its way back into the game, drawing to within three points, 54-51, with 1:36 remaining to play. But 6-foot-9 Nancy Mulkey made her presence felt defensively down the stretch to extinguish the Toreros' hopes.
 
She grabbed a defensive rebound that led to a made free throw for Peterson to extend the lead to four with 44-seconds remaining, and followed up on USD's next possession by recording her fifth block of the game that led to a pair of game-sealing free throws by Alexis Griggsby. The Huskies were 9-of-10 from the free throw line over the final 10 minutes to help put the game away.
 
"I'm really proud of the way we stayed together and continued to fight and kind of learn through adversity," Langley said. "I was really impressed with the way we kept our composure at the end and were able to finish it out."
 

 

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