The Huskies overcame an 18-point halftime deficit — the second-largest comeback in school history — and gave coach Danny Sprinkle the signature win that he’s been seeking since taking over last year.
Washington (6-3, 1-1 Big Ten) also snapped an 11-game losing streak against USC and handed the Trojans (8-1, 1-1) their first loss of the season.
Steinbach finished with 24 points on 7-for-12 shooting and 16 rebounds while Claude, the former Trojan, scored a season-high 22 points against his old team.
Wesley Yates III, who also played for USC last season, added 16 points for Washington, which was 0-6 against ranked teams under Sprinkle.Three days earlier, the Huskies nearly erased a 16-point deficit in the second half before falling 82-80 at the buzzer to UCLA at home on Wednesday.
In front of 5,337 at Galen Center, Washington trailed 48-30 at the break, which prompted a stern halftime speech from Sprinkle.
“Just compete,” he told the Huskies, who converted 1 of 12 three-pointers and committed nine turnovers in the first half. “Let the chips fall where they may. If we compete, they’re going to let us back in the game because we’re good enough and we’re explosive enough offensively that we’ll get back in the game, but we have to do it on the defensive end.
“We got to get grimy.”
Sprinkle challenged UW players to defend without fouling and bemoaned a free-throw disparity in the first half that favored USC. The Trojans converted 15 of 17 while the Huskies were 5 of 7.
“We’re never out of the game,” Sprinkle said. “We always have another run in us. With the explosiveness that we have offensively and the guard play, we always have another run in us.
“But we can’t put ourselves in those spots. We can’t have silly turnovers. We can’t have breakdowns defensively and let teams get to the free-throw line as easy as they did in the first half.”
The Huskies seized momentum and scored 13 unanswered points to start the second half.
Zoom Diallo began the spurt with a three-pointer before Franck Kepnang’s jumper, Steinbach’s layup and back-to-back threes from Yates and Steinbach that pulled UW to within 48-43.
USC rebuilt a 12-point lead (61-49) when the Huskies made another push and scored 13 straight points.
During the spurt, Claude tied it at 68-68 with a driving layup and Steinbach dropped a three-pointer that put the Huskies up 71-68 with 4:40 left for their first lead since the opening minutes.
The Huskies never trailed again.
Claude, who tallied five or fewer points in two of the previous three games, came up big at the end while connecting on a three-pointer and drawing a foul on a layup. His ensuing free throw put UW on top 79-73 with 1:21 remaining.
The 6-foot-6 senior guard battled Chad Baker-Mazara and got burned defensively on a few highlight plays from the demonstrative Trojans guard, who scored a team-high 21 points while delivering several verbal jabs at the Huskies.
At the end, Claude got the last word.
“This was the Des that we wanted to see,” Sprinkle said. “He was playing with a little fire and a little chip and a little edge tonight. When he does that he’s one of the best players in the country and he makes all of his teammates better. We needed every bit of it tonight.”
The Huskies also needed a defensively dominant outing from Kepnang (eight rebounds, five blocks and nine points), a 45-31 rebounding edge and 40-24 points in the paint disparity to spark an incredible second-half surge.
Washington outscored USC 54-28 after halftime to capture its largest second-half comeback.
“We were just antsy,” Sprinkle said. “They were taking the fight to us. They were quicker to the basketball. They were quicker to the rebounds. No one was being scrappy and that’s not us in the first half.”
Washington has a week off before hosting Southern Utah on Dec. 13.
The Huskies finish their nonconference games against Seattle U (Dec. 19), San Diego (Dec. 22) and Utah (Dec. 29) before resuming Big Ten games with a daunting road trip the first week in January that includes stops at No. 22 Indiana and No. 1 Purdue.
