Oregon and Arizona State’s women’s basketball teams pushed each other to exhaustion Thursday night. The evenly matched teams ended the physical, back-and-forth contest on a last second shot.
Arizona State forward Emily Westerberg swished a three-pointer from the top of the key with 13 seconds left to give the Sun Devils the 44-43 win at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Ariz.
Oregon slips to 1-4 in Pacific-10 Conference play and 10-5 overall. No. 13 Arizona State improves to 4-2 in conference and 13-3 overall.
Playing within Arizona State’s confines, a place Oregon hadn’t won since 2000 and where the Sun Devils have now won 34 out of 36 games since the 2003-04 season, Thursday’s game came down to the final seconds.
Oregon held a 43-41 lead with 3:46 left on two free throws by Brandi Davis. Both defenses locked in with neither team scoring until Westerberg’s final shot, which broke an 11:13 stretch for Arizona State without a field goal.
“It’s disappointing especially since we played such good defense,” Oregon guard Chelsea Wagner said. “On offense, we did a good job against their pressure, and we didn’t make as many bad turnovers, but it wasn’t enough.”
With 13 seconds left, Oregon guard Kaela Chapdelaine advanced the ball to half court and called time out. Forward Eleanor Haring took the inbounds pass, made a crossover into the key and had her shot miss off the back of the rim. After a scramble for the loose ball, Wagner narrowly missed a last second three-pointer.
“We wanted to leave here having Arizona State understand who Oregon was and how they play, and I think they got a good idea of that,” Oregon coach Bev Smith said on KSCR-AM 1320 after the game.
Oregon travels to play Arizona on Saturday, looking to gain a split of the two game road trip with an 11 a.m. game televised live on Fox Sports. Arizona lost 64-48 Thursday to Oregon State.
Cicely Oaks guided Oregon with 10 points as scoring came at a premium. Arizona State’s Kristen Kovesdy scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Westerberg had nine points.
Harings’ last second miss coincided with her difficult night as several shots hit the back rim and bounced out. Shooting 3-for-9 for the night, Haring scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Oregon’s 6-foot-3 post Gabrielle Richards, hampered most of the game by foul trouble, scored six points with six rebounds.
Davis played a larger role against Arizona State after not playing in Oregon’s loss to Stanford last Saturday. She created open looks for teammates with three assists and hit two big free throws.
“She can penetrate and dish and she did a very good job of that tonight, going by that first wave of defense, pulling the help and finding our shooters,” Smith said.
Oregon’s defense held Arizona State to 25.8 percent shooting and became just the second team to outrebound the Sun Devils, 44-42.
The difference though, came on offensive rebounds culminating with Aubrey Johnson’s last second grab and subsequent pass to Westerberg. Arizona State kept firing, shooting 17-for-66 from the floor. The long shots created opportunities for offensive rebounds, and the Sun Devils capitalized, snatching 19.
“We just need to track a couple of those at the very end of the game to keep that separation of two points,” Smith said. “And it’s just a tough tough loss for this team, but they are resilient.”
The Arizona team Oregon plays Saturday features a dramatically different look than last season’s team. Arizona center Shawntice Polk passed away during the summer due to blood clots.
Arizona has struggled to a 5-11 start, losers in nine of its last 10 games.
The new-look Wildcats, vertically challenged with no players taller than 6-foot-1, have struggled shooting the basketball and rebounding. Arizona is averaging 39 percent from the field and 35 rebounds per game.
Arizona’s loss on Thursday to Oregon State is the Wildcats fifth consecutive and has the team searching for answers. Arizona shot just
25 percent from the field, 20 percent on three-pointers and 50 percent on free throws.
“We got down and we didn’t have a lot of leadership on the floor, and that’s not to take anything away from Oregon State,” Arizona coach Joan Bonvicini said. “They played hard and made their free throws down the stretch.
“We are a better team in so many ways (than we played tonight), but we’re just not showing it.”

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