Washington only had four seconds to work with on the baseline inbound after the Ducks forced a jump ball. 

The Huskies (14-11, 5-8 Big Ten) tossed the ball to Devin Coppinger in the mid-range. Her contested shot attempt hit the side of the rim. The clock hit triple zeros and Oregon women’s basketball (17-8, 8-6 Big Ten) earned a much-needed 68-67 victory.

Big defensive stops are what clinched Oregon a spot in the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday night. Its performances on the offensive end of the floor are what’s keeping games so close — and it’s what has the Ducks on the bubble of making the NCAA Tournament.

Deja Kelly iced the game from the free throw line after she drew the fifth foul on Washington’s leading scorer Sayvia Sellers with 18 seconds left. Fifteen makes at the charity stripe propelled Oregon to victory despite shooting 42% from the floor and 21% from downtown.

“I knew I had to step up and make,” Kelly said about her late-game free throws. “I’ve been in these situations before so just really using that to my advantage.”

The Ducks’ defensive pressure improved as Wednesday’s contest went on. The Huskies tallied eight of their 15 turnovers in the fourth quarter.

“I loved our second-half intensity defensively,” head coach Kelly Graves said. “We just picked it up. I thought in the first half we were reactionary.”

Just a few days prior, Oregon handed the undefeated No. 1 team in the nation, UCLA  (23-0, 11-0 Big Ten), its second narrowest margin of victory of the season. The Ducks forced 18 turnovers in that game and held the Bruins without a field goal for the final 5:41 of the first quarter.

The path was there for Oregon to hand UCLA its first loss of the season, but the offense simply wasn’t there. The Ducks are shooting 34.9% from the floor and 20.8% from beyond the arc in their eight losses this season.

Oregon’s performance on the offensive end of the floor was just good enough to seal the win against Washington. Still, the final score was separated by just one point against the 13th team in the Big Ten standings in a home game.

“A lot of those close wins, how many times have we been on the defensive end,” Graves said. “That’s what’s carried us.”

The Ducks are holding the best players on opposing teams below their scoring averages. The Bruins’ Lauren Betts, one of the frontrunners for the Naismith Player of the Year award, scored single digits for only the second time this season on Sunday.

The Oregon game plan is working on one end of the floor. It was good enough against Washington — but it hasn’t been enough to earn the team victories against the best teams in the nation. The shots have to fall at some point.

“If you’re open, you’re in range and you’re on balance, let it fly,” Graves said. “One of these days, it’s just gonna really click and this team’s going to even take off more.”

It’s a sprint to the finish line for the Ducks. Three of the final four games are on the road but all of their remaining opponents are currently unranked. Oregon now knows it’ll play in the Big Ten Tournament in March — but nothing is guaranteed past that.

“Coach keeps telling us it’s home stretch so this is where we really got to double down. We’re really starting to peak a little bit. We have to,” Kelly said. “We’re going to keep moving forward and take it one game at a time because we got a lot more games to play.”