With each team going on multiple scoring streaks throughout the game, the most important thing was that they happened at the right time.

With 46.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Oregon was down by five but starting to find its groove. Washington State’s leader in points, assists and steals, Charlisse Leger-Walker tossed an inbound pass that rolled around on the court while multiple players dove at the ball trying to grab it. It ended up being called a jump ball with the possession arrow favoring the Ducks. 

When the Ducks had the ball, they had four straight offensive rebounds before freshman guard Chance Gray hit a deep three at the top of the key to cut the lead to three with seven seconds remaining. 

After the Cougars’ scored in the paint, Endyia Rogers cut the lead to two with a three.

Now, here’s the crazy part. 

Rogers stole the ball from WSU on its inbound pass, and passed it to Ahlise Hurst. She shot the ball from three point line on the right corner, and made the shot with a second to go, but the referees waived it off due to clock issues. After the referees called a timeout that lasted five minutes, Oregon was given the ball again. 

The inbound pass was given to Grace VanSlooten, who drove into the paint and was fouled by WSU’s center, Bella Murekatete. After slapping VanSlooten on the arm, Murekatete fouled out of the game. 
VanSlooten made both free throws to send the game into overtime. The Cougars started out with the same intensity that they had at the beginning of the game when they went on a 7-0 run right at tipoff, but the Ducks found their spark with less than a minute to go, in the OT period. Te’Hina Paopao had an NBA-distance three to bring the game within one, but they weren’t able to find the last scoring opportunity to win it as they lost to Washington State 85-84. 
In the last eight matchup between these two teams, Oregon has beaten them each time. This includes an 83-30 win in Pullman last season. When the Cougars came out scrappy with tight man-to-man defense, it threw the Ducks off. Washington State had a 10 point lead within the first five minutes of the game, despite Oregon holding Leger-Walker scoreless. 
After the Ducks called a timeout, they switched to a smaller lineup and were able to catch up. Rogers, who only had seven points against Washington on Friday, started Oregon’s first scoring run with back-to-back layups. Rogers finished the game with 33 points, one point shy of tying her career high. 

A product of multiple scoring runs from both teams, comes a lot of scoring droughts. Each team had at least one drought that lasted four minutes. For the Ducks, they were able to snap out of it with transition defense. Stolen passes and jump balls gave Oregon the opportunity to get comfortable offensively. 
When Oregon was in control of the floor, Washington State had a hard time getting the ball back. The Ducks finished the game with 13 offensive rebounds, which gave them the opportunity for open threes and Gray took full advantage of it. She broke both her career high in points and three pointers with 22 which included five threes. 

“Chance proves herself everyday in practice,” head coach Kelly Graves said. “Even though she was in a shooting slump, I knew she would get out of it. I believed in her.”

A few times during the game, the Ducks would switch to a bigger lineup, but that’s when the Cougars went on their scoring runs. Leger-Walker, who leads the Pac-12 in scoring and recently set a new career high of 40, sat for the majority of the third quarter after playing all 40 minutes during Washington State’s game against Oregon State on Friday. While Oregon was playing in its bigger lineup, she was put back in the game and led the Cougars on a 13-3 run. 
Phillipina Kyei, who is Oregon’s only center after losing Sedona Prince to a medical retirement and Kylee Watson when she transferred to Notre Dame after last season, collided with a Cougar in the head with 3:52 left in the second quarter and headed straight to the locker room. 

This is Washington State’s first road win against a ranked opponent since 1998. After this upset loss and Kyei being questionable while going through concussion protocol, the Ducks will head up to Corvallis to face in-state rival Oregon State for their second matchup in this season. During the preseason, Oregon slipped away with a nine point win against the Beavers — a game where Kyei’s presence was needed.