Saturday in Pullman, Wash., made it official: The Oregon women will finish winless in conference road games this season.
Last-place Washington State outscored the Ducks, 68-53, and outrebounded them, 49-20, handing Oregon its third-straight loss.
Oregon, which has not won an in-conference game on the road since Feb. 26, 2005, has dropped five of the past six games and fell to 5-11 in conference play (14-12 overall). They now have sole-possession of eighth place in the conference standings.
“Congrats to WSU. They played an honest and tough game,” Oregon coach Bev Smith said in a broadcast interview. “I’m disappointed in our effort, it was not there. We let our school down and it hurts more than anything else to lose like that here.”
The loss to the Cougars in front of 681 fans at Beasley Coliseum was the first for Smith in her coaching career at Oregon. The Ducks had not lost to Washington State since 2001.
Seniors Crystal Blue and Keisha Moore, who combined for 29 points and 11 boards in the final home game of their collegiate careers, led the under-sized Cougars.
Blue ended with 12 points, coming within one point of a new single-game best. Moore scored 17, tying teammate Kate Benz for a game-high. Benz added 12 rebounds to complete her second-straight double-double.
“We were the aggressors from the very beginning and we kept that aggressiveness,” Washington State coach Sherri Murrell said
in a press release. “I never felt like Oregon was the aggressor at any point, and that helped us play a solid game.”
The Cougars never trailed, leading by as many as 20 points in the second half. The Ducks came within nine points of knotting the score with 6:14 left in regulation, but could not match Washington State’s hustle off the glass. The Cougars’ 20 offensive rebounds matched Oregon’s entire output.
Washington State (8-17 overall, 2-14 Pacific-10 Conference) jumped to an early 10-2 lead in the first half after an 8-0 scoring run. The Ducks later tied the score with 14 minutes left before halftime, but fell behind for good shortly after.
“The book was written in the first half,” Smith said. “You can’t beat anyone with that rhythm and without fight in you. Washington State will come out and fight you. They’re scrappy, and they put it together. Their post players outplayed our post players.”
The Cougars held Oregon’s season scoring leader Gabrielle Richards to two points. The 6-foot-3 center grabbed one rebound in 15 minutes. Forwards Eleanor Haring and Jessie Shetters combined for three boards and 12 points.
“We didn’t box out and we didn’t get bodies on the people we needed to,” Shetters said in a University press release.
Junior forward Carolyn Ganes came off the bench to lead Oregon with 11 points as the only Duck to score in double figures. Freshman guard Tamika Nurse ended with nine points and Cicely Oaks chipped in with six.
Oaks started in place of Chelsea Wagner, who sat out her second consecutive game. The senior from Springfield is recovering from a concussion suffered Feb. 12 against Arizona State. Wagner has missed three games this season.
The Ducks have been in search of consistent three-point shooting in her absence. Wagner holds a team-best 44 percent conversion mark from three-point range this season. Oregon managed to make 5 of 16 three-pointers against the Cougars. Oaks led with two.
Oregon returns home this week to finish the regular season against USC and UCLA. The Ducks lost to both teams on the road in December. This is Oregon’s final tune-up before the Pac-10 Tournament starting March 3.

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