Washington Huskies coach said earlier this week that he'd be looking to give more minutes to the players that would help them rebound.
For tonight, that meant reinserting post Matthew Bryan-Amaning to replace Darnell Gant into the starting lineup next to Aziz N'Diaye. Along with Justin Holiday, that put the team's best rebounders by percentage in the starting lineup.
And it paid off with the Huskies dominating the boards 22-13 and the Huskies taking a 39-23 halftime lead. Bryan-Amaning and N'Diaye combined for eight rebounds, including four offensive rebounds for Bryan-Amaning. But as expected, UW's guards demonstrated an increased focus on rebounds with Venoy Overton adding contributing four to the team's advantage.
While Bryan-Amaning led the team with five total rebounds, it was N'Diaye who carried the scoring load with nine points on 4-for-6 shooing, coming mostly off layups cutting to the basket. Abdul Gaddy followed N'Diaye with six points on two 3-pointers and tied Isaiah Thomas with a team-high four assists.
USF kept it close early, primarily on the strength Perris Blackwell and Michael Williams, who had 13 points on 4-for-8 shooting and shot 3-for-6 from the 3-point line.
This is the type of well-rounded performance the Huskies showed early in the season but had trouble maintaining for 40 minutes. That would seem to be the challenge with Pac-10 play looming.