Danny Sprinkle nearly didn’t see the end of this game.
During a timeout with 4:16 remaining, the Washington men’s basketball coach stormed on the court and got face to face with referee Tommy Nunez to voice his frustration before being separated by UW players.
It was that type of night for the Huskies, who verbally sparred with the officials while battling fourth-ranked Michigan.
Washington lost both battles, particularly an 82-72 defeat to the Wolverines in front of a sellout crowd of 9,268 at Alaska Airlines Arena.
“We battled a lot of adversity tonight. A lot of it,” Sprinkle said. “I appreciate our fans. I thought they were terrific. They gave us great energy. It just seemed that we couldn’t find our footing offensively from three. We were getting great shots. To beat a team like Michigan, you got to knock some of those down.
“We picked it up a little bit from three, and that’s when we kind of made our run. But Michigan did a really good job just keeping that lead at six to eight. … It was hard to get three stops in a row to get us over that edge.”
Sprinkle anticipated the Huskies would be nervous playing a juggernaut like Michigan in front of the first home capacity crowd of the season and joked their first shot might sail over the backboard.
If only it was that simple.
Washington missed its first shot and many more during a dreadful shooting performance in the first half marked by an early 6½-minute scoring drought.
On the first play, Quimari Peterson’s three rattled out, but forward Hannes Steinbach corralled the offensive rebound, drew a foul and made an improbable shot before crashing to the court.
And the crowd went wild.
However, the Huskies didn’t give them many reasons to cheer at the start while missing their next eight shots and falling behind by 12-3 in the opening seven minutes.
Steinbach ended UM’s 12-0 run with a dunk along the baseline, but UW’s offensive woes persisted during the first half. The Huskies converted 12 of 34 shots, including 4 of 19 three-pointers before the break.
If not for Peterson, who had nine of his 13 points in the first half, Washington’s 39-30 halftime deficit would have been larger.
“We were getting good looks,” Peterson said. “We know we just had to just keep doing what we doing, and the shots will fall.”
The Huskies had their best moments early in the second half when Peterson hit a three followed by baskets from Zoom Diallo, Franck Kepnang and Steinbach that cut their deficit to 46-41 with 15:53 left.
Then backup freshman guard JJ Mandaquit took control of UW’s offense and scored all 15 of his points on 5-for-7 shooting in the second half, including three three-pointers.
“It’s just staying locked into the game,” said Mandaquit, who tallied a career-high in scoring. “For me it’s, how can I come in and make an impact and impact winning?”
Mandaquit’s free throws pulled the Huskies to 69-63 with 6:57 left, but they never got any closer.
The game spiraled away from Washington in the waning minutes while Michigan benefited from officials’ calls that had Sprinkle furious and punching his fist or crouching on the sideline and burying his head in his hands.
“Don’t get me fined,” Sprinkle said when asked about the game’s physicality and a 20-13 foul discrepancy that favored Michigan. “I’m not even going to comment.”
However, he added: “I thought our guys did a hell of a job. I thought our guys did a great job, chesting up, walling up, and doing what you’re supposed to do at the Big Ten level and doing what Michigan did.”
Sprinkle said the confrontation with Nunez was in reference to Steinbach’s missed jumper that would have cut Michigan’s lead to seven in the final six minutes.
“I was telling him I thought it was goaltending,” Sprinkle said.
Washington converted 9 of 11 free throws and Michigan was 13 of 17 at the line.
“There was a lot of adversity our guys had to fight through tonight,” Sprinkle said.
Steinbach finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds, Diallo had 12 points and Jacob Ognacevic tallied 10 points and drained two three-pointers in his UW debut.
Michigan 7-foot-3 center Aday Mara led the Wolverines (15-1, 5-1) with 20 points on 10-for-11 shooting while forward Morez Johnson Jr. had 16 points and 16 rebounds and forward Yaxel Lendeborg chipped in 14 points.
Despite the loss, Sprinkle believes there were plenty of positives the Huskies (10-7, 2-4) can take into Saturday’s game against No. 12 Michigan State.
“It showed when we’re doing the right things, we can play with teams like that,” he said. “But you can’t slip up and have the missed box outs at the free-throw line. You can’t have the careless turnovers. You can’t start the game 0 for 10 from three in order to win those games.
“It ain’t good enough to just get close. We have to get over that hump.”