Photo credit: AP Photo - David Perry
It was close at times. Washington withstood a big first-half flurry, took a one-point lead into halftime, but ultimately were undone by missed free throws, its failure to grab rebounds and to keep Kentucky off the glass.
It's been a bugaboo in before in this short season. The Huskies were outrebounded by 10 in the exhibition against Division II Saint Martin's and by five against Eastern Washington.
This time, two Kentucky players manhandled them on the boards and helped the Wildcats to a 49-39 rebounding edge in the Maui Invitational semifinal.
One of those players was Josh Harrellson, who had 14 rebounds, seven offensive.
And the other player was Terrence Jones.
The former UW commit didn't have an outstanding offensive performance. He missed nine of 13 shots, but he got to the free throw line 14 times and converted eight. Jones hurt the Huskies the most with a game-high 17 rebounds and four blocks.
Washington tried to counter with Aziz N'Diaye and the 7-foot center collected 10 rebounds. He had little help from anyone other than Justin Holiday, managed seven rebounds.
Even if the Huskies had somehow evened up the rebounding numbers, I'm still not convinced they would have won this game tonight because UK freshman guard Brandon Knight (above) was amazing.
With all the attention on Jones, Knight was overshadowed going into the game, but within minutes he proved he was the best player on the court and also Kentucky's biggest liability.
Washington had no one that could keep him out of the lane. The Huskies tried Isaiah Thomas and Venoy Overton and nothing worked. They harassed him into eight turnovers, however, UK could live with that as long as he scored a game-high 24 points.
It's a quick turnaround for the Huskies who will face another elite level guard, Michigan State's Kalin Lucas. He's not as quick as Knight, however, he's capable of big scoring performances.
Washington plays No. 2 Michigan State 2 p.m. (PST) in the consolation.
"We got to be ready to play," Thomas said. "You can't have one loss turn into two. Michigan State might be a better team than Kentucky so we got to turn the page."
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