The Oregon women’s basketball team played their first matinee game of the season in Pullman against Washington State, scraping by with a narrow 69-65 victory.
Washington State came in fresh off the heels of its first ranked win against Oregon State this past Sunday. The game marked their first win against a ranked opponent since the 2016-17 season.
Oregon came into Pullman following a win against Washington, with a perfect 6-0 season record, looking to secure its 26th consecutive overall win.
Washington State made it known early that winning in Pullman is not easy.
“We knew it was going to be a fight, we did not overlook this team by any stretch,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said. “We’ve seen them play and they play so physically, so well together, they play so hard. This is a good Cougar team.”
Down 14-20 at the end of the first quarter, the Ducks shot just five-for-14 from the field. It was the most points Oregon has given up this season in a single quarter. The Cougars found the holes in Oregon’s zone defense early, whipping passes inside and out that led to wide open threes and attacking Oregon’s zone to create wide open lanes to drive.
Despite limiting teams this season to a 19.1% success rate from behind the arc, the Ducks gave up 40% three point shooting in the first half to the Cougars. Washington State’s Charlisse Leger-Walker went three-for-five in perimeter shooting, boasting 11 points going into halftime.
With three minutes to go in the first half, WSU forced Oregon into their 11th turnover, their highest thus far this season with a defensive five second call attempting to get the ball inbounds. They did not let Oregon’s Taylor Mikesell touch the ball, clobbering her with their face guarding defense. The shooting guard finished one-for-five in field goal shooting, amounting to only three points.
Te-Hina Paopao also had a rough game, finishing out with more turnovers than points. As a spearhead to Oregon’s offense, Paopao never found a rhythm on offense
Despite shooting 52% from the field in the first half, Oregon had 11 fewer field-goal attempts due to Washington State forcing turnovers and second chance possessions. Their 69 points was the fewest amount of points scored this season with an average of 86.7 points per game.
Included in Oregon’s scoring was Nyara Sabally, who finished as the Ducks’ leading scorer with a double-double of 19 points and 14 rebounds with an additional two blocks. Sabally took the game into her own hands as Oregon’s only constant and consistent scorer throughout the game.
“We’ve got to get her the ball just a little bit deeper so she can just turn and score, but she was big tonight,” Graves said. “We needed it. We needed that inside presence.”
Erin Boley also chipped in a quiet 17 points and a perfect 5-for-5 perimeter shooting, but made it count when they needed it. Her three pointer with under four minutes left in the game tied it at 58-58.
“I think she needed that,” Graves said. “She had a couple of tough games in a row and she needed that for her confidence. She’s going to have to be that player that wins us games like that for us down the stretch.”
With just under two minutes left, Paopao’s left elbow jumper gave Oregon a boost to tie it at 60 apiece. The possession shortly after, Jaz Shelley came left off a Boley screen to bank in her third three of the game to give Oregon a 63-62 lead with a minute to go.
Coming out of a timeout, Boley hit a dagger corner three to extend the Ducks’ lead 66-62 with half a minute to play. The three was the senior’s 200th three-point shot in a Duck uniform.
With possession of the ball with 33 seconds left, the Leger-Walker hit her second three of the game to cut Oregon’s lead to one, 66-65. Playing the foul game, Boley made 1-for-2 free throws with 21 seconds left, leaving the Cougars with a final possession to tie or take the lead, down 65-67.
The Cougar’s had a great look with a corner three, but Ula Motuga wasn’t able to nail it in the final seconds. Oregon’s Maddie Scherr sealed the game with two free throws to give Oregon its 26th consecutive win, 69-65.
With a sweep of the Washington schools, Oregon is now 7-0 on the season and 5-0 in Pac-12 play. Their next games are in 2021 with a pair of games against USC and UCLA.
Oregon will use this holiday break for a physical and mental reset, which is needed before a tough stretch to start the new year.
“There’s a little bit of added stress on top of what a regular season brings, and I think every year every team needs a little bit of a mental reset around Christmas time,” Oregon senior Erin Boley said. “I think this year it’s really going to benefit this team especially.”
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