Did everybody see that?
There was the Oregon women’s basketball team, leading Pacific-10 Conference leader Arizona State by four points with 47 seconds left.
The Ducks came out of their own timeout, no doubt with some brilliant game-sealing play drawn up.
After the inbounds pass, the ball was passed from Duck to Duck. The Sun Devils’ defense was tenacious. Oregon’s play, whatever it was, wasn’t going to work.
With the final seconds ticking off the shot clock, the ball found its way into the hands of Angelina Wolvert, who stood outside the three-point line, right in front of the Oregon bench. As the senior forward spotted up for the desperation shot, a Sun Devil jumped up with her hand extended skyward.
At that moment, if you were one of the few Arizona State fans present among the 4,774 in attendance, you’d have to be feeling pretty good. Wolvert had only hit one three-pointer all season, and the Devils only trailed by four. There was plenty of time left.
But when Wolvert rose up and let it fly — when she thrust her right arm forward, launching the ball forth from the palm of her hand — somehow, teammate Alissa Edwards just knew it was going in …
And it did.
Wolvert’s miracle three-pointer was the stone that killed Goliath, as Oregon (15-11 overall, 8-8 Pac-10) knocked off the first-place Sun Devils (19-8, 11-4), 63-56, at McArthur Court Thursday night.
“If it didn’t go in, it would not have surprised me. Let’s put it that way,” said Wolvert, who led the Ducks with 15 points and seven rebounds. “It came off the palm of my hand, and it just went in. It’s just lucky; it’s not like I’ve got the green light or something.”
“It was awesome. I knew she was going to make it though, because she’s been practicing that in practice,” Edwards said. “It kind of shocked everyone, I think, but it was awesome.”
Junior guard Jamie Craighead compared Wolvert’s shot to throwing a shot put.
“It was good,” she said, “I was smiling all the way down the court.”
The Ducks didn’t look like a sixth-place team as they stayed one step ahead of Arizona State for most of the game. In fact, a putback by senior forward Brianne Meharry with 13:41 left in the first half gave Oregon a 9-8 lead, and the Ducks never trailed again.
Edwards posted solid numbers in her second consecutive start at point guard. She finished with 10 points, four assists and four rebounds — with no turnovers — in 36 minutes of play.
As a team, the Ducks committed just 13 turnovers, compared to their season average of 20.
“I was really pleased with our performance tonight,” head coach Jody Runge said. “I think that although we didn’t keep them off the offensive boards really well, we did a great job of defense without fouling. Overall, we did a pretty good job of neutralizing their outside threat.”
Craighead struggled on offense but finished with 11 points and three steals. Senior forward Lindsey Dion scored just five points but had three assists and four steals.
Senior center Jenny Mowe scored nine points, grabbed five boards and went 5-of-5 from the foul line, including two clutch free throws with four minutes left to give Oregon an eight-point lead.
After the game, players talked about the win as if it were a glimpse of what could have been this season.
“It’s kind of frustrating knowing that we’ve beat both the teams that are supposed to be number one,” Edwards said, referring to the Feb. 17 home win against Washington. “That means we could be up there too.”
“It shows that we could be in the tournament, or maybe should be in the tournament, but I don’t know if we’ll get in or not,” Craighead said.
Next up for Oregon, Arizona comes to Mac Court at 1 p.m. Saturday.