Oregon’s offense was present from its first possession, when center Jenny Mowe scored on an easy inbound basket on the pass from forward Brianne Meharry.
But when the Duck women’s basketball team ran down the floor to stop Arizona’s offense, something bad happened — the defense didn’t follow.
And as Oregon’s “D” was nowhere to be seen, the Wildcats (15-5 overall, 5-3 Pacific-10 Conference) used 54.2 percent shooting to bury the defenseless Ducks, 88-76, in front of 2,550 people at the McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz.
“I think we did not have a good defensive effort tonight,” Oregon head coach Jody Runge told Ray Martin on KSCR radio. “When they made their run in the second half, we scored plenty of points to win a basketball game, but we just kept putting them on the free-throw line time after time after time, or let them have dribble penetration right down the gut.”
The Ducks (12-6, 5-3) lost their share of first place in the Pac-10. Meanwhile, red-hot Arizona State beat Oregon State, 58-51, winning its fifth straight game and taking sole possession of first place in the conference race.
Oregon must recover from the loss by 6 p.m. Saturday, when it looks to derail the Sun Devils’ winning streak.
“They’re a very good basketball team; they’re playing very well at home,” Runge said. “It will be a tremendous challenge for us to go over there and regroup from a loss on the road.”
After Mowe put the game’s first points on the scoreboard, Arizona point guard Reshea Bristol responded with a three-pointer, sparking a 17-2 Wildcat run through the next eight minutes.
The Ducks’ defense made a cameo appearance near the end of the first half, and Oregon actually took a 43-40 lead early in the second period.
But Arizona used a balance attack to reclaim the lead. With eight minutes remaining and the score 63-57 in favor of the Wildcats, Bristol was fouled on a layup and sank the free throw, then hit another trey to give her team a 10-point lead.
Oregon never got close after that.
“We just did not defend the basketball tonight, and that’s something we’re supposed to be known for and do pretty good,” Runge said. “We didn’t do that very well tonight at all.”
Offense wasn’t much of a problem for the Ducks. The green team shot 49.2 percent from the floor, the first time in three games when its shot percentage was better than 30 percent.
Guard Jamie Craighead scored a career-high 21 points on 7-of-16 shooting. All seven of her made shots were three pointers, which was also a career high.
Forward Angelina Wolvert played her second game since spraining the medial collateral ligament in her left knee. She scored 18 points and blocked two shots.
Forward Lindsey Dion scored 12 points and Mowe chipped in 10.
But stealing the show was the Arizona tandem of Bristol and forward Elizabeth Pickney, who scored 26 points apiece. Bristol accompanied her point total with six rebounds and five assists.
The Wildcats aggressively tried to take the ball inside all game, resulting in 20 points from 25 free throw attempts.
“When they made their run in the second half, it was on the free-throw line,” Runge said. “That’s not something you can do on the road.
“You need to take some pride in not letting people score on you. Right now we’re not doing that. We’re satisfied with putting a hand on them in dribble penetration, which is a foul, or letting them go by us and foul them from behind, and that’s not a good enough effort to let that happen.”