Despite  a record-breaking performance from Jillian Alleyne,@@directory@@ who broke the school record in rebounding with 27 and tied the school record in scoring with 38, the Ducks now find themselves 0-2 in regular season play.
The Ducks had their fair chances to come away with a win tonight but just couldn’t pull away. With the ball in Jordan Loera’s@@directory@@hands for what should have been the last possession of the game, the Ducks instead came away with an airball from Loera, which was then converted into a game-winning layup for the Vikings.
“At the very last possession we didn’t get it done,” Coach Paul Westhead@@directory@@ said after the game. “We tried to spread the floor and tried to get a good look on the last possession, but it’s not her normal natural position because Laura fell out,” Westhead said. “The last few minutes of the game, I preferred to have Jordan handle it and she had done a nice job so I think we made the right pick there, but it’s a misfortune that she stumbled coming into the lane.”
The Ducks came out flat in the first half  and this proved to be fatal for the Ducks in an otherwise evenly matched game. For the Ducks moving forward, these slow first half outings will have to improve if they plan on winning games as they will begin to play tougher opponents down the road.
“I don’t know if it was because of Lexi, but regardless it shouldn’t happen,” Stanulis said. “Luckily it’s early on in the season so we just need to keep learning from these games and it just proves we need to come out harder.”
Alleyne dominated the second half as she controlled both sides of the ball. Even though the Ducks are known to be an outside shooting team, Alleyne proved to be a nice mix-up down low as the Ducks had a nice inside-outside oriented game.
Portland State drew first blood in the overtime as Kate Lanz@@http://www.goviks.com/roster.aspx?path=wbball@@ hit a jumper to give the Vikings a 68-66 lead. But after that basket, both teams continued their even play as they found themselves in another late game tie at 74-74 with 35 seconds to go after a clutch three-pointer from Portland State’s Mikaela Rivard.@@see above link@@
In the second and final overtime, both teams came out looking exhausted, but it didn’t seem to affect their play too much. It was now the Ducks’ turn to lead in the early goings of the second overtime, and they held it until there was 2:40 remaining in the game. After a pair of free throws from Alleyne, the Ducks were down 83-84 with 1:48 left to go, and then the madness hit a high point. With 54 seconds to go,  Loera hit a crucial jumper to give the Ducks a 85-84 lead.
But with a minute to go, Alleyne tweaked her ankle after landing awkwardly on a crucial offensive possession that essentially gave Portland State the ball with a chance to take the lead. Aside from Alleyne going out of the game,  Stanulis@@goducks.com roster@@ had fouled out of the game a couple possessions before, leaving the Ducks short handed in the most crucial moment of the game. With the chance to tie or take the lead, Kate Lanz went to line after being fouled on a drive and hit 1-of-2 from the line to tie the game at 85-85. Then the unthinkable happened. The Ducks had possession of the ball as the remaining seconds counted down, and with a mere 7 seconds left on the clock, Jordan Loera put up a highly contested fadeaway jumper, which fell well short and resulted in an airball. Out of all the different ways the ball could have bounced, the rebound instead found itself in Portland State’s hands and eventually was converted into a fast-break as they cruised to a wide open layup for the win over the Ducks at the buzzer.
Takeaways: It’s never easy to lose after having such a dominating performance from one of your players like Alleyne had tonight, as she finished with 38 points and 27 rebounds, but sometimes the ball simply does not roll in your favor. As she continues to prove herself as a solid post player in the Pac-12, Alleyne will have her chances to show what she’s got, especially after a performance like tonight.
On the horizon: The Ducks will try and regroup as they travel to Honolulu, Hawaii, next Friday on Nov. 23 for the Waikiki Beach Marriott Rainbow Wahine Showdown,@@http://hawaiiathletics.com/news/2011/11/22/WBB_1122111313.aspx@@ where they are set to face off against Hawaii, Oklahoma and Arkansas. This will come as another early season test as the Ducks try and figure out what type of team they will be moving ahead.