The last time Tamika Nurse drove the lane with the clock winding down, she earned two free throws and won the game.
This time, Nurse ran into Sybil Dosty and the 6-foot-3 Sun Devil sent Nurse’s lay-up attempt flying. The block ended Oregon’s shot at a much-needed win and an upset of the Sun Devils.
Arizona State’s 52-51 win extended Oregon’s losing streak to four games and left the Ducks 4-7 in the Pacific-10 Conference and 10-12 overall. Arizona State improved to 15-7 and 9-2 in the Pac-10.
Oregon trailed 52-46 with 4:58 left before mounting a final run. Nurse buried a three to bring the Ducks within three, 52-49, and Ellie Manou’s lay-up put Oregon within one with less than 40 seconds remaining.
Briann January dribbled the ball off her foot and gave Oregon and Nurse one last shot for the win.
Nurse led Oregon with 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Smith moved Manou and Nicole Canepa into the starting lineup and both responded with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Guard Kaela Chapdelaine had seven assists and four rebounds to make up for her 1-of-7 shooting performance.
“This team is ready to put together some back-to-back games,” head coach Bev Smith said in a media release, alluding to next week’s home games with Stanford and California. “The team learned if we bring this effort and intensity you can beat anyone, and if you don’t, you can lose to anyone.”
Arizona State was guided by 14 points from January and 13 from Lauren Lacey. Dosty had nine.
Oregon and Arizona State stayed within five points of each other throughout the first half.
Lacey created a five-point lead, 20-15, on a lay-up with seven minutes left in the half, but two Nurse free throws and a Canepa lay-up brought Oregon back within one. Lacey again pushed the lead to four, 26-22, on a lay-up but consecutive buckets by Canepa knotted the score at 26 at halftime.
Oregon shot poorly at the start of the second half and fell behind, 39-30, but stayed within striking distance.
Manou’s lay-up with eight minutes left made it a six-point deficit and a minute later Ellyce Ironmonger made it four, 47-43, on a free throw. Manou made a free throw to reduce the lead to three, 47-44, before Arizona State upped the lead to 52-46 and Oregon made its final surge.
Oregon again struggled with turnovers in what has become a season long theme. The Ducks had 21 Saturday with Micaela Cocks, who had seven turnovers the last time the two teams met, the biggest culprit with seven in 18 minutes.
The Ducks shot 44.4 percent from the field, but made just 15.4 percent from long-distance.
Oregon has more tests next week with No. 7 Stanford visiting Thursday and No. 9 Cal coming to McArthur Court on Saturday.
Stanford returned the favor for consecutive losses in Los Angeles at the start of Pac-10 play with a sweep of USC and UCLA this week at Maples Pavilion.
The Cardinal (19-3, 9-2 Pac-10) remain a game behind Cal (19-3, 10-1) for first place in the Pac-10.
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