When the Oregon women’s basketball team cannot control the pace, things don’t go smoothly.
That’s exactly what happened for the Ducks in a 88-80 loss against Oregon State in the 91st Civil War game at Matthew Knight Arena on Saturday night.
Up 42-41 at halftime, the game was close until the waning minutes of the second half. Oregon State (9-6, 1-2 Pac-12) engineered a 11-2 run that began with 7:32 left in the game. Oregon pulled to within five on a layup by senior Ariel Thomas with 2:37 left to play, but Oregon let the visiting Beavers open their lead to 11 with 1:43 to go, which proved to be too much for the Ducks to handle.
Oregon (9-5, 0-3) has yet to a win a game in Pac-12 play.
Sophomore Jillian Alleyne finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds, good for her tenth consecutive double-double of the season and 12th overall this year. Freshman Chrishae Rowe and Thomas finished with 19 and 11 points, respectively.
“I thought Jillian Alleyne did a terrific job inside,” head coach Paul Westhead said. “I think she made a gigantic step forward from anything that she did in the past last year to this kind of game.”
The Ducks shot just 3 of 17 (17.6 percent) from three-point range, far below their season average of 32.1 percent.
“It happens, you have off nights and I think when our shots are off and not hitting, we have to crash the boards, the offensive boards,” Rowe said.
The game was dictated by a series of runs as the lead changed 15 times in the 40-minute contest.
Oregon State’s Ruth Hamblin exploded for 27 points and 16 rebounds from the center position. Coming into the game, she averaged just six points per game. Oregon was unable to find a way to stop the 6-foot-6 sophomore from Houston, British Columbia.
“We anticipated a few things, her (Hamblin’s) presence defensively, her ability to influence shots coming at her, potentially rebounding,” Westhead said. “I don’t have the stat sheet, but it has to be a career high. Kudos to her. We can make some adjustments (for Monday). It’s not as easy as it sounds.”
Westhead’s system relies on speed, on being faster and better conditioned than the opponent in order to wear down the opposing defense in the second half.
“I think we started off the game at our pace,” Rowe said, “but we slowly allowed them to slow us down and we ended up playing a half court game, which is not how we play. That hurt us.”
Westhead said after the game that he believes when Oregon State began to control the tempo in the second half, the Ducks began to lose control of their style of play.
“We weren’t able to answer back with a faster pace,” Westhead said. “They’re a very good team, they’re very efficient. In this system, pretty good doesn’t work.”
Oregon has the opportunity to avenge Saturday night’s loss in Corvallis with a rematch less than 48 hours away.
“I think we’re just going to come out even harder,” Rowe said. “We know what we did. We know the way we played. Tomorrow, we’re going to go in and fix what we did not do try and get a “W” on Monday.”
Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne