Oregon’s bus broke down en route to Seattle, but it was when the Ducks reached Bank of America Arena that their wheels came off.
Without senior Cathrine Kraayeveld, sidelined for the first time this season with an inflamed left elbow, Oregon (16-7 overall, 9-5 Pacific-10 Conference) fell to Washington
81-57. The 24-point loss was the Ducks’ worst all season.
The loss re-established the importance of Kraayeveld in Oregon’s starting lineup, as she is the team’s leading scorer and rebounder with 15 points and nine boards per game.
“We would have liked to play Oregon with her there, but it wasn’t meant to be,” Washington head coach June Daugherty said. “It didn’t change anything that we were going to do.”
Washington trashed Oregon’s hopes of a Northwest-school sweep and snapped its four-game winning streak. The Huskies improved to 11-14 overall and 7-8 in the Pac-10 without the services of its best offensive player, junior forward Kayla Burt, for most of the game. Burt suffered a broken nose
12 minutes into the first half during a physical rebounding play with Oregon center Andrea Bills.
Sophomore guard Cameo Hicks picked up the slack for the Huskies by scoring nine of her 14 points in the second half. She shot 6 of 12 from the floor and recorded game-highs with eight rebounds and four steals. Freshman guard Dominique Banks contributed 13 points.
Taking the place of Kraayeveld, freshman Kristen Forristall made her eighth start this season and was Oregon’s only bright spot, converting her first seven field goals to notch a career-high 19 points on 7 of 10 shooting — 3 of 5 from three-point range.
The score was tied on four occasions in the first half, and Oregon grabbed its only lead of the game,
16-14, at the 13:44 mark on a three-pointer and a jumpshot from Brandi Davis. The senior guard scored seven points — all in the first half — on 3 of 14 shooting.
The Huskies started with a 12-0 run in the second half to put the game away on 5 of 5 shooting. Forristall ended Oregon’s drought with a three-pointer and two layups.
Washington then started a 14-0 scoring spree with 12:33 remaining that spanned nearly eight minutes, during which Oregon coughed up three turnovers and missed 11 field goal attempts, allowing the Huskies to build a 30-point lead at 75-45 with 4:48 left.
Both teams shot around 38 percent, but the Ducks didn’t box out and got clobbered on the glass. Oregon center Jessica Shetters grabbed a team-high
7 of 36 total rebounds. Washington hauled in 49 total and won the battle on the offensive glass, 24-11.

[email protected]