Dalayah Daniels doing it all for UW Huskies during WNIT run

The Huskies call them screen assists, a blocking move by an offensive player that gets a teammate open and results in a basket.

Technically, the Washington women’s basketball team doesn’t track them, but if it did, standout forward Dalayah Daniels would no doubt be first in that category at UW.

“We celebrate them,” coach Tina Langley said. “In the last media [session], Elle [Ladine] and Lauren [Schwartz] were like, ‘Dalayah set amazing screens to get those last looks.’

“That’s what great teams are. Some nights it’s her night, and some nights they’re not going to give her any room. She’s been so unselfish. When it’s her time, it’s her time.”

In her first year with the Huskies, Daniels, who spent the previous two seasons with the California Golden Bears, has made herself indispensable while acclimating to a role in which she does a little bit of everything.

“She came into a program that doesn’t run a simple system,” Langley said. “The ball hits her hands almost every possession, so she’s got to make a lot of reads. She’s a player that’s going to be a pro one day, and she’s excited by that challenge that she’s in so many positions at different times.

“Just the last game, she’s guarding a guard the entire game. … When I was [an assistant] at Maryland we had multiple players that could guard [positions] 1-5 and do things that are really unusual. She has those capabilities, but it does take time because you’ve usually played a more traditional role.”

Daniels often operates like a traffic cop at the top of the high post while directing the offense. At 6 feet 4 the junior forward is tall enough to see over defenses or use her imposing frame to physically impede opposing players.

“At the beginning of season I didn’t really understand the severity that screens played in our system,” Daniels said. “But once I was able to learn our system a lot more and know the role I had, I knew that would be one of our biggest assets was to screen well and making sure I get my guards open for either a potential shot or to hit me on the roll.

“Setting screens is not easy. It definitely hurts a lot, but when you get used to it you just take it on the chin and got to keep moving. It’s just my job.”

Actually, it’s one of the many jobs for Daniels who leads Washington in scoring (11.0 points per game), rebounding (6.4) and blocks (1.4) while shooting 49.5% from the field.

“Whatever the team needs me to be,” Daniels said when asked to describe her role. “You guys have seen me play. You know I can score, I can facilitate, I can defend. I’m pretty versatile. I can do pretty much whatever the coaches need me to do, and of course they’re going to put me in positions where I’m going to look good and succeed.

“They’ve done a great job of utilizing me to where my strengths are. That’s what so great about this program. Everybody looks good in it, and it’s a great system. My role has grown over the months. I’m excited to see how it’s going to grow in this postseason play, because we’re not done yet.”

Washington (17-14) hosts Kansas State (19-16) in the third round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament at 7 p.m. Friday at Alaska Airlines Arena.

In UW’s WNIT opener, Daniels tallied 14 points and 11 rebounds against San Francisco. In the next game she finished with eight points, 11 rebounds and three assists vs. New Mexico.

“For most of us, it’s our first time playing in postseason,” Daniels said. “It’s just another level of focus that we have to have, whether that’s physically or emotionally. We’re still new to this, but we’re under a great coaching staff and they’ve all been to this level, so they know exactly how we need to prepare for each team that we go against.

“In regular season you still want to win, but the sense of urgency you have to have is every single play counts. One play can change the whole trajectory of the game. So we know we have to value every possession and value the way we start the game to all the way that we finish it. We know we don’t have time to mess up or have any trials and errors. There’s a different sense of urgency that we have to have in postseason play.”