Along the Oregon bench Wednesday, glum faces expressed a frustration becoming all too common to the Ducks women’s basketball team.
Oregon held a commanding 18-point halftime lead, only to be undone by turnovers and a resilient Oregon State squad in a 65-59 overtime loss.
The Civil War loss at McArthur Court before 3,704 fans continued a troubling trend of playing well in the first half and losing the game with poor play in the second half, a trend that’s cost Oregon Pacific-10 Conference games against USC, UCLA and more.
Oregon State roared back with an 18-to-2 run to open the second half and knot the score at 36. Former Oregon guard Ashley Allen poured in eight of those points, six coming on two three-pointers in front of the Oregon State bench.
“We just were not really aggressive,” Oregon coach Bev Smith said. “We didn’t have that killer instinct. We thought we had time. We thought we had (the) score. Time isn’t on your side, particularly if a team is aggressive.”
Oregon State (8-10, 3-6 Pac-10) relied heavily on senior forward Casey Nash, who had 12 points in the first half, 11 in the second half and two in overtime. Her overtime bucket, off a steal under Oregon’s basket, put Oregon State ahead 57-55, and the Beavers never trailed again.
Nash’s 27 total points matched her career high and far surpassed the combined 19 points she scored in three previous Civil War games.
“She is a very good player,” Oregon guard Kaela Chapdelaine said. “She is one of those players that you don’t necessarily stop but you have to contain, and I thought in the first half we did a really good job against her.”
The two teams meet up again Sunday with a 5:30 p.m. showdown set for Gill Coliseum in Corvallis. In the three days in between, Oregon (10-9, 2-7) has to find answers for an offense that went from shooting 52 percent in the first half to 33.3 percent in the second. Oregon made 28 turnovers – 19 in the second half.
“We’re going to go home and think about this one,” a somber Oregon point guard Tamika Nurse said. “This one hurts.”
Tuesday at practice, Smith listed Taylor Lilley as day-to-day with a stress fracture in her right leg. After the game, Smith described the injury as a “very, very early stress fracture” in her right leg in the fibula, a non-weight-bearing bone, which allows her to manage it.
“Once I get playing, I pretty much don’t really think about it too much, but then like once a free throw happens, I’m like, ‘OK, this hurts a little bit,’” Lilley said.
Oregon went to Lilley early and she answered with seven first-half points. On the night, she had 12 points, six rebounds and two assists.
“I think Taylor’s got an incredible competitive edge, and I think she’s one of the young ladies on our team that puts in a ton of time into the game of basketball, and the more time you put in, the harder it is to surrender and you have that competitive edge,” Smith said.
“I was really pumped,” Lilley said. “The energy around there, I was really excited to play this game and having the big band there and stuff.”
Carolyn Ganes and Nurse each had 11 points for Oregon. Forward Eleanor Haring scored 10 points and grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds.
Oregon State closely resembles Oregon with a small rotation. The difference is experience with five freshmen and a sophomore on the Beavers roster.
“We are very, very young,” said Oregon State coach LaVonda Wagner at the post-game press conference alongside Judie Lomax and Nash. “We have one player that has any Pac-10 experience, game experience and (Nash’s) sitting right here.”
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