Last March I wrote about Rihards Kuksiks forcing my Washingto Huskies into a double overtime before they finally prevailed to go on and win the game and the PAC10 Basketball Conference Title and a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Only last week, Kuksiks, now a Junior at Arizonia State, went on another scoring spree against the Huskies (ranked #24) to make a real statement about his role in NCAA basketball. From the press I pull out the below tidbits:
Latvian Kuksiks keeps frustrating Washington Huskies with a career high 27 points and Arizona State dominated the No. 24 Huskies from the start in a 68-51 victory Friday night.
“They played great defense,” Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar said. “We didn’t have much going on the inside or outside. Kuksiks did a phenomenal job and it gave them someone to go to offensively.”
Arizona State made 8 of 19 3-pointers, 5 of 8 by Kuksiks, while Washington was 3 of 14.
“I just came out aggressive,” Kuksiks said. “I got some open looks and I made the first two. Then from that point on my teammates did a good job of finding me and I just knocked my shots down.”
The Latvian’s night included a rare and powerful dunk that brought his teammates off the bench.
The Huskies were coming off a 90-79 loss to Oregon last Saturday that snapped Washington ’s 18-game home winning streak.
It was the seventh victory for Arizona State over a ranked team in Sendek’s three-plus seasons at the school. The Sun Devils only had five in the previous 11 seasons.
Additionally, Kuksiks has moved past teammate Derek Glasser as the leading Sun Devil scorer with 12.4 per game average.
ASU Player Roster site:
http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/kuksiks_rihards00.html
Celms
