The Oregon Ducks (9-5, 0-1 Pac-12) had played a masterful first half on the defensive end. The offense had not quite come along, but it did not seem to matter as the Ducks held a 23-10 lead with just two minutes left in the half. The Oregon State Beavers (12-0, 1-0 Pac-12) were able to overcome their shooting woes in the final minutes with a pair of jumpers, one of which coming off of a 3-pointer from AJ Marotte. Although the score favored the Ducks 23-15 after the first half, those two jumpers served as the first indication of a massive shift in momentum that saw Oregon State leave Oregon in the dust.
Grace VanSlooten opened the scoring for Oregon with a short jumpshot in the opening minute of the game. Kennedy Basham followed that with two baskets of her own to get the Ducks’ offense going. A 3-pointer from Chance Gray helped Oregon jump out to a quick 13-6 lead just under seven minutes into the game.
The Ducks’ defense was able to hold a normally high-powered Beavers offense to just eight points in the first quarter. Oregon State made just one of its final 10 shot attempts in the quarter, after which Oregon led 15-8.
The Beavers continued to struggle from the field, and Phillipina Kyei took full advantage of all the misses. She grabbed her 10th rebound less than three minutes into the second quarter. The defense of the Ducks continued to be stifling, not allowing the first points from Oregon State until almost six minutes into the second quarter.
The Oregon offense kept plugging along. While the scoring numbers were not too prolific, but partnered with the stellar defense, the Ducks were able to hold a double-digit lead for most of the second quarter. Oregon led 23-10 with three minutes left in the first half.
Oregon State finally was able to find the bottom of the basket a couple times, which happened to coincide with a long scoring drought from the Ducks at the end of the half. The low scoring affair went into halftime 23-15.
Finally being able to see the ball go through the hoop at the end of the first half seemed to help the Beavers finally find a spark on offense. Oregon State’s Talia Von Oelhoffen made a 3-pointer and a pair of free-throws early in the quarter to try and cut the Oregon lead. However, VanSlooten helped the Ducks get out of their own slump with an and-1 basket and a jumper to keep the lead roughly the same.
The Beavers went on an 8-0 run halfway through the third quarter that brought the Oregon lead down to just a single point with four minutes left. The run survived through a Ducks timeout meant to slow it down. Oregon State took its first lead of the game on a Lily Hansford 3-pointer. The run expanded to 14-0 during a stretch where the Beavers held the Ducks scoreless for almost seven minutes before a Kyei layup finally broke the drought. Another three from Hansford right before the end of the quarter sent the game into the fourth with Oregon State holding a 37-31 advantage.
With the momentum fully flipped in the direction of the Beavers, they continued to dominate the Ducks. A massive 26-5 run that lasted almost 10 minutes saw Oregon State take a 46-32 lead just under three minutes into the final frame.
Oregon was able to keep up with the Beavers’ scoring for most of the rest of the game. Unfortunately for the Ducks, that meant that they were kept at a roughly 14-point deficit for the next couple minutes. Oregon State was able to pull away a little in the scoring column at the very end, but the game was over long before that. The Beavers ended the game on a 8-0 run to make the final score 62-41.
Oregon was led in scoring by VanSlooten, but was unable to score consistently as it shot just 30.4% from the field as a team. The Ducks will have a chance to redeem themselves in their next conference game against UCLA on Jan. 5.
