Ellington

The Washington men’s basketball team was stagnant.

It had put up just 11 points almost six minutes into the game, and despite an earnest effort from the crowd, it just couldn’t muster much energy without the Huskies giving them a reason to cheer.

Enter Austin Seferian-Jenkins.

The football player turned dual-sport athlete gave the UW — as well as the 9,794 in attendance at Alaska Airlines Arena — a spark, and the Huskies beat Stanford 76-63 Saturday.

Seferian-Jenkins immediately showed the impact his 6-foot-6, 258-pound frame could make, stopping a Stanford defender cold with a screen.

“I was definitely trying to hit him,” Seferian-Jenkins said. “Every screen I intend to hit hard.”

Whether it was Seferian-Jenkins, an amped crowd, or perhaps something else, the Huskies (12-7, 5-2 Pac-12) responded to stretch the 11-7 lead to 24-13 with 3:58 left in the first half behind a 13-5 run.

But the Cardinal (15-5, 5-3) wasn’t done and made it a game going into the half, 32-25. Stanford didn’t lose momentum coming out of halftime, cutting the lead to four just two minutes into the second half. But then Seferian-Jenkins returned to the floor, the crowd became energized, and the tide turned.

“It was fun out there, I had fun with my teammates, and I just had a great time,” he said with a grin. “It was cool, it was just like practice — I don’t really know what else to say, but it was just fun.”

Five minutes into the second half, the Huskies reeled off an 18-2 run that stretched their lead to 21 points, 61-40. With 9:32 left to play, it all but sealed the deal. For the majority of the five minutes that changed the outcome of the contest, Seferian-Jenkins was on the court.

“[He’s a] big spark because we know nobody’s going to get a rebound over him,” junior Abdul Gaddy said.

UW head basketball coach Lorenzo Romar was especially pleased with the effort from Seferian-Jenkins, considering the foul trouble center Aziz N’Diaye found himself saddled with all afternoon.

“Stanford’s a tall, very good rebounding team, but when Aziz got in foul trouble, Austin was able to come in and spell him, and we didn’t regress at all,” Romar said.

On a night Seferian-Jenkins didn’t contribute a single point — he missed his only field goal attempt — the lift he gave the Huskies was obvious. In just 16 minutes, the freshman pulled down seven rebounds.

He also held his own inside against a Stanford team that averages 37.5 boards a game. The UW outrebounded the Cardinal as a team, 47-32, while every player but one grabbed at least five boards for the Huskies.

Freshman Tony Wroten led all scorers with 21 points and dished four assists, while Terrence Ross and Darnell Gant had 18 and 17 points, respectively.

But on a day when the Huskies shot 69.2 percent in the second half and hit shot after shot to put Stanford away, it wasn’t about what the UW did on offense. Rather, it was what it did on defense.

And on this particular afternoon, it started with Seferian-Jenkins.

“He gives us physicality, he gives us an identity,” Gaddy said. “I think he’s going to help our team a lot, especially down the road.”

Reach Sports Editor Josh Liebeskind at sports@dailyuw.com or on Twitter @jlieb24.