Matthew Knight Arena is used to seeing big performances out of a Plum, but not so much in the opposing team’s colors.
Oregon (8-8, 1-4 Pac-12) fell 91-69 against Washington (14-3, 3-2 Pac-12) Friday night in a women’s basketball showdown, thanks in large part to the Huskies’ Kelsey Plum, younger sister of former Duck volleyball setter Lauren Plum.
“I was disappointed in our effort at times,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said. “Defensively I thought we had been making strides, great strides, even last week in a couple of tough losses. Tonight I thought we took a real step back.”
Plum was a menace all night, finishing with a game-high 35 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. She made her mark from all over the court, forcing the Ducks to defend against a multitude of looks. Plum’s patented shot, her midrange pull-up, are as close to automatic as one can find in such a chaotic game.
“I got to coach her with USA basketball, so I know (Plum) pretty well,” coach Graves said. “She is a ball player man; she knows how to play the game. You take something away and she is smart enough to do something else.”
With the Husky star stepping up, the Ducks needed their own, junior forward Jillian Alleyne, to do the same. Alleyne finished with decent numbers, 18 points and 15 rebounds, though it wasn’t enough to keep up with Plum’s blistering pace.
It was a rough start for Oregon, something that has plagued this young team of late.
“We started out the half really slow,” Oregon senior Amanda Delgado said. “We are getting better and we are going to keep working, we just have to keep our heads up.”
With 8:45 left in the first Oregon cut the lead to 22-18 after junior Lexi Petersen nailed a momentum three. The success late in the half for the Ducks was mainly due to a temporary improvement on the defensive end, as they began to force the Huskies into tough three point shots — which they were missing.
Delgado was a big reason for this, doing all of the little things that don’t show up on the stat sheet. She moved her feet to stay in front of her mark, was smart positioning herself on box outs and helped direct her teammates when things broke down.
Delgado perhaps had her best game of the season, finishing with 11 points and 6 assists.
“I just did what the defense gave me,” Delgado said.
The Ducks struggled to close out the first, watching as the score ballooned back to 40-31.
“There were times in that first half when we had a chance to creep back in, and we just never seemed to make that key shot or get that key rebound,” coach Graves said.
Coming out of halftime Oregon began to succumb to the slow grind that is Washington basketball. The Husky formula was simple — work the ball inside and see what happens. They would either get a shot from the block or an open three on the kick-out. The few times things fell apart Plum was always available to answer.
With 11:25 left to play the Huskies led 67-47, putting to bed any chance for a Duck comeback.
Alongside Plum, Husky forward Aminah Williams made her mark by breaking the Washington career rebounds record. She finished with 7 points and 11 rebounds.
Oregon will next take the court Sunday afternoon as they host a Washington State team also coming off a loss. Game time is set for 1 p.m.
Follow Christopher Keizur on Twitter @chriskeizur