Marquese Chriss leads Huskies to 100-67 rout of Mount St. Mary’s

Andrew Andrews loaded up, leapt and threw down a one-handed dunk in transition, an athletic display that the Washington Huskies senior guard must have been saving for his final season.

Moments later, as the final seconds of the first half ticked away, junior-college transfer Malik Dime ascended from the floor and swatted away a feeble shot attempt by Mount St. Mary’s, the Huskies’ overmatched opponent on Thursday night, and the modest home crowd at Hec Edmundson Pavilion stood and applauded.

The Huskies led by 23 points at halftime and coasted to a 100-67 victory over the visiting Mountaineers on Thursday night before a crowd of 5,381, riding their athleticism to the kind of easy win that should be expected at home.

Marquese Chriss led all scorers with 29 points on 11-of-18 shooting — plus 10 rebounds — showing a deft touch around the rim and knocking down open jumpers. He punched a one-handed dunk from a standstill in the first half, added a one-handed jam off the dribble in transition and rejected a straight-on dunk attempt by Mountaineers’ center Taylor Danaher shortly after halftime.

During one particularly impressive series midway through the second half, Chriss, a 6-foot-9 freshman forward, made his first three-pointer of the game, then scored while being fouled on UW’s next possession and made the free throw.

He helped the Huskies race to a 21-2 lead — Mount St. Mary’s didn’t score until it trailed 17-0 with 4  1/2 minutes gone — though the Mountaineers, who attempted 37 three-pointers and made only nine of them, cut the lead to 37-25 on Junior Robinson’s three-pointer with 4:32 left in the first half.

But the Huskies closed the half on a 14-3 run, punctuated with by dunks from Andrews and Chriss, and never led by fewer than 18 points the rest of the way.

There were sloppy moments — UW finished with 19 turnovers — and the Huskies shot just 27 of 40 from the free-throw line, a lower percentage than they would like.

But they also made 50.7 percent of their field-goal attempts, outrebounded the Mountaineers 60-29, and held their opponents to 31.2 percent shooting from the field.

Andrews (20 points) and freshman guards David Crisp (13 points, five rebounds, four assists) and Dejounte Murray (11 points, nine rebounds) joined Chriss in double figures.

This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 10:41 PM with the headline "Marquese Chriss leads Huskies to 100-67 rout of Mount St. Mary’s."