Washington’s Jamal Bey caps breakout season with big game

Washington men’s basketball coach Mike Hopkins had plenty of positive things to say Wednesday night about Bishop Gorman graduate turned Huskies junior wing Jamal Bey.

Even after a 98-95 loss to Utah in the Pac-12 tournament at T-Mobile Arena.

“I’m looking for him to take a big jump and be not just one of the elite players,” Hopkins said. “Not only in the league — but in the country.”

Bey concluded a breakout season with 18 points on 7 of 13 shooting, including 4 of 8 from 3-point range. He also added five rebounds and two assists in 37 minutes of play. He finishes the season with averages of 10.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and a 3-point shooting percentage of 50.7 — sixth among Division-I players.

On now to the 2021-22 season.

“There were chances at the beginning of the game,” Bey said. “We ran out of time, but we had many chances early in the game to pull this one off, but we felt short.”

Bey was an all-state honoree for the Gaels during his senior season of 2017-18, and signed with the Huskies as a consensus four-star prospect and one of the best wings on the West Coast. But he played sparingly as a freshman, averaging 6.2 minutes per game while backing up talented players like Jaylen Nowell and Matisse Thybulle, both of whom are in the NBA.

He earned more minutes as a sophomore in 2019-2020, starting 16 games and averaging 5.7 points in 24.3 minutes on a team that featured two more NBA players in Isaiah Stewart and Jaden McDaniels.

But additional roster turnover during the offseason created more opportunity for Bey, who emerged this season as a full-time starter and one of the best players on Washington’s roster. He averaged 31.1 minutes and scored in double figures in his last five games.

“He’s a guy who just works on (his game) day and night. He’s become one of the best 3-point shooters in the country, not just in our league,” Hopkins said. “A guy that takes pride in his work, there’s no shortcuts in this thing and work pays off.”

The 18 points Bey scored Wednesday equaled the second most he’s scored in a game this season, but Washington’s porous, undisciplined defense allowed the Utes to shoot 60.4 percent from the field, including 53.8 percent from 3-point range.

Timmy Allen led all scorers with 24 points for Utah (12-12). Alfonso Plummer added six 3-pointers en route to 21 points.

The seventh-seeded Utes advance to play second-seeded Southern California in the tournament quarterfinals Thursday, while Washington concludes the year with a 5-21 record, its worst in Hopkins’ four years with the program.

“That’s not where we want to be and there’s got to be some improvements,” Hopkins said. “We’ll be back and better.”

Bey will be, too.

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.