If it wasnβt for the cotton plugs stuffed into both of Dylan Smithβs nostrils, Arizona trainer Justin Kokoskie says, blood would have drained all over the McKale Center floor Saturday night.
Instead, Smith left his heart there.
In his last game at McKale Center, the Wildcatsβ senior wing scored all of his team-high 19 points β on six 3-pointers and a free throw β after suffering a broken nose in the first half of Arizonaβs 69-63 loss to Washington.
An elbow from 250-pound Husky center Isaiah Stewart hit Smith on the side of his face under the basket as the big man descended from a layup. Officials reviewed the play but found it inadvertent, issuing no foul.
It was unintentional, yet still painful.
Smith missed nearly seven minutes in the first half because of the blow, the first few in the locker room while UA staffers tested him for a concussion, stuffed his nosebleed and gave him an icebag to soothe his sore head.
All the while Smith begged everyone to just let him go.
βWe had to slow him down,β Kokoskie said. βHe wanted to come back sooner.β
Not after a collision like that. After all, this is a team that lost forward Stone Gettings for a month after he took a hit to the face against Penn on Nov. 29, suffering a concussion, a broken facial bone and a long-lasting black eye.
βIβm not in any way saying Isaiah Stewart did that on purpose but other than Stone getting his face broken, I donβt think Iβve ever seen a harder blow to the face than what Dylan took,β UA coach Sean Miller said. βWhat a testament to him to play and make six 3s. Iβm really proud of him.
βDylanβs had his ups and downs but no one will ever question his effort level. Heβs a guy who really tries hard.β
Miller wasnβt exactly in the mood to say that about too many other guys Saturday. Not only did he call the Wildcatsβ performance βpoorβ in their loss to the last-place Huskies β especially in reference to their 20% shooting and 10 turnovers in the first half β but he alluded to the delicate nature of injuries to some players.
During his weekly news conference before the Washington teams arrived, Miller said that after an injured player receives clearance from Kokoskie and UA doctors, the decision to play often falls on the athlete, since each is different.
βSome guys like to fight through,β Miller said. βOther guys want to be closer to 100 percent.β
It wasnβt difficult to tell which kind of player Smith is.
Miller made that clear again after Saturdayβs game.
βThese days, if you get hit in the eyebrow, you could be out for two to four weeks,β Miller said. βYou know, the kid broke his nose. Just got his nose smashed. He played, and in the second half, heβs the reason we stayed in the game. Heβs the reason we had a chance.β
Smith, who was not available for comment after the game, just didnβt have enough help.
With Arizona trailing by 15 at halftime, thanks to poor shooting and the 16 points the Huskies scored on those 10 UA turnovers, Smith hit three 3s within 66 seconds β all from the right corner and wing β to singlehandedly cut Washingtonβs lead to 42-32.
Then, after Stewart scored inside, Smith fired in a 25-footer from above the top of the key to cut the Huskiesβ lead to 44-35.
UA guard Nico Mannion later hit a 3-pointer and made a three-point play to help pull UA within 53-48 with 8:46 left. But after UA cut it to 55-51 on Smithβs fifth 3-pointer, Christian Koloko was called for an over-the-back foul and a technical for complaining about it.
βChristian may be one of the nicest kids that Iβve ever met,β Miller said. βWeβre actually on him to communicate more. Itβs just hard for me to believe, but I guess thatβs the way the world right now.β
Washington hit all four free throws resulting from Kolokoβs fouls, and Arizona never cut it closer than four points the rest of the way, unable to overcome its dreadful opening 20 minutes.
βThe first half kind of killed us,β Gettings said.
But in that sense, maybe itβs a good thing for the Wildcats that theyβll play Washington again on Wednesday in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament.
In both games against the Huskies this season, the Wildcats had trouble early adjusting to Washingtonβs zone, managing to overcome it for a 75-72 win in Seattle but falling too far behind Saturday at McKale Center.
On Wednesday, in a 2:30 p.m. first-round game, the Wildcats will have a fresh memory of exactly what theyβll be facing β and, maybe, some motivation from that memory.
βThatβs our only choice,β Miller said.
