The Arizona State women appear to have Oregon’s number.
The Sun Devils (16-6, 8-2 Pacific-10 Conference) beat the Ducks (8-13, 4-6), 68-56, to sweep the season series and give Arizona State its ninth consecutive win over Oregon in Tempe. The loss slides the Ducks into seventh place in the Pac-10; their conference record matches that of Oregon State, who beat the Ducks last week and Arizona yesterday. The Sun Devils, third in the conference behind Cal and Stanford, have now won eight straight games.
Oregon has lost four of its last five games and hasn’t won a conference game since its Jan. 17 road victory against Washington State.
Down 8-4 early in the first half, the Sun Devils went on an 11-0 run over three minutes and 44 seconds and never surrendered the lead in the first half. Oregon did, however, suffer a critical blow when junior guard Taylor Lilley hit the floor after a breakaway layup. She would leave after 12 minutes of playing time with a concussion, and her status for tomorrow’s game against Arizona is unknown.
The Sun Devils closed out the first half with five straight points to lead 39-26. Though the Ducks managed to outscore Arizona State in the second half, they never managed to reduce the lead to single digits. Junior guard Micaela Cocks’ jumper with 17:13 remaining in the second half cut the lead to 43-33, the closest margin of the half.
Oregon has now had a margin of defeat or victory of greater than 10 points in all 10 of its conference games this season.
Senior guard Briann January led the Sun Devils with 14 points, and junior guard Dymond Symon and junior guard Danielle Orsillo each had five assists to go with 12 and 13 points, respectively. Sophomore forward Becca Tobin scored 11 points off the bench on 5-for-5 shooting to become the fourth Arizona State player on the night in double figures.
Cocks was the dominant force on the Oregon stat sheet, scoring a game-high 16 points to go with team highs of six rebounds, four assists and eight turnovers. Freshman forward Amanda Johnson had nine points, five rebounds and three steals in 20 minutes off the bench, as the Ducks used their ninth starting lineup combination of the season.
Though Lilley exited the game early due to her concussion, her single three-point field goal (in three attempts) moved her to fifth all-time on the Oregon three-point field goal list, surpassing Chelsea Wagner with the 134th three-pointer of her career. Lilley scored seven points and added two assists and two steals on the night.
As a team, the Ducks shot a respectable 45.7 percent from the field (including 54.5 percent on three-pointers) and out-rebounded the Sun Devils 31-29, but 26 turnovers to ASU’s 16 factored heavily into the margin of defeat.
Oregon sophomore forward Nicole Canepa also made her conference season debut with eight points in 21 minutes.
Oregon plays the Arizona Wildcats tomorrow at 11 a.m. in Tucson, in a game televised on Fox Sports Net. The Wildcats are 8-13 overall and 1-9 in conference play after losing 63-55 to Oregon State yesterday. Depth will again be an issue for Arizona, as four members of the starting five played more than 30 minutes against the Beavers. Wildcats sophomore forward Ify Ibekwe will be the centerpiece to head coach Bev Smith’s game plan, as she burned the Ducks for 23 points and 15 rebounds at McArthur Court on Jan. 8 in a 68-55 Oregon win.
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