Washington Beats USC in OT to Stay Alive in Big Ten Basketball Tournament
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Washington Huskies guard Quimari Peterson (0) hits a 3-point shot in the UW men’s basketball team’s 83-79 overtime win against USC in the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. Credit: Washington Athletics [/caption]
The Washington Huskies season may seem like a broken record, but it will spin another day.
Overcoming a long injury list, early shooting woes and travel across multiple time zones, UW rallied in the second half to force overtime before beating USC 83-79 to stay alive in the Big Ten tournament. The Huskies, missing half of their 14 scholarship players, used a 13-0 run to tie the score at 58-all in the middle of the second half and played the Trojans even the rest of regulation.
“This is a high character team, man,” Danny Sprinkle told Nichole Auerbach on the glitchy Peacock broadcast. “Adversity hasn’t defined us all year. We’ve had guys quit, we’ve had guys get hurt, and this team keeps battling. Really proud.”
Zoom Diallo led the Huskies (16-16) with 22 points, including a bucket and a pair of free throws in the final 2:18 of overtime, to go along with 11 assists. The final point of the loser-out game at the United Center sealed the victory and Hannes Steinbach’s 20th double-double of the season. The freshman forward hit a free throw with two seconds to go for the final margin, finishing with 10 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots.
Diallo, who also pulled down seven boards, led a team with just seven scholarship players available. Washington will play Wisconsin 11:30 a.m. PT Thursday in another loser-out game. The Huskies would need a miracle run of four more wins to complete five victories in five days to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
“Zoom was phenomenal,” Sprinkle said. “[The Trojans) were the tougher team in the first half. They were quicker to the basketball. They still even got a couple 50-50 balls in the second half. But our guys made some huge shots. We got some stops when we needed them too.”
After Diallo’s driving layup gave UW a 77-76 with 2:18 to go, USC (18-14) missed three straight free throws. Washington guard Quimari Peterson (15 points) responded with his fifth 3 of the game to put the Huskies up four. He then fouled Kam Wood, who closed the gap to 80-79 with 36 seconds to go. USC missed its last two shots, and Diallo and Steinbach closed the game out with free throws.
Early in the second half, overtime seemed unlikely.
Shortly after missing a 27th 3-pointer in his previous 30 tries, Wesley Yates III scored eight of his 15 points during the 13-0 second-half run that pulled the Huskies back into the game. Freshman guard Courtland Muldrew, who played a solid 26 minutes with nine points, seven rebounds and three assists, put back his own miss for the final points in regulation with 59 seconds to go.
After misses by each team, Woods’ mid-range jump shot over Peterson rattled out as the regulation horn sounded to keep UW’s hopes alive. Woods led USC with 24 points and seven rebounds in 42 minutes.
To keep the season going yet another day, the Huskies will have to play much better than in the regular season game against Wisconsin, which was perhaps UW’s low point of of 2026, a 90-73 home loss. On Detlef Schrempf’s Feb. 28 jersey retirement night, the Huskies trailed by 28 points in the second half and allowed guard Braeden Carrington to hit a school record nine 3-pointers.
“We don’t need them to make 18 3s like they did in the first one,” Sprinkle said. “We didn’t play with any force that game. And give Wisconsin credit, they played great. But hopefully we play a lot better and with a lot more energy tomorrow.”
