As the Oregon women prepare to take on the Washington Huskies (5-8, 1-2 Pacific-10 Conference), the Ducks see ample opportunity to get the weekend off to a great start.
Tied up at 38 in the all-time series against the Huskies, the Ducks (5-9, 2-2) have not won in Seattle since the 2002 Women’s National Invitational Tournament.
Appropriately, the Ducks won the WNIT championship that year.
“We’re definitely thinking about ourselves. Offensively, what we need to do against their defense,” junior guard Taylor Lilley said. “In their man defense, they switch all over the place. I think we really have to look at going into the post more.”
Saturday’s game against Arizona State saw the Ducks fall behind 5-0 after a mere 30 seconds of action. After bringing the score to 9-7 with less than four minutes elapsed, the Sun Devils went on a four-and-a-half-minute, 17-2 scoring run from which the Ducks could not recover. The possibility of a three-game win streak vanished. Oregon followed up a confidence-boosting nine-turnover outing against Arizona with 24 against the Sun Devils.

“The first six or seven minutes, we weren’t competitive,” head coach Bev Smith said. “Arizona State plays well when they’re the aggressor and they took advantage of that. I think that was the difference in the game.
“I think that’s where we feel we disappointed ourselves.”
Smith responded to the loss by turning up the intensity in the team’s Monday and Tuesday practices.
“I think we feel really good right now, especially with the intensity and the way practice has been going,” Lilley said. “We have a little more focus.”
Both the Huskies and Saturday’s opponent, Washington State (7-7, 0-3), returned from the buzzsaw that is the Bay Area road trip battered and bruised. Washington spent last week on the losing end of a 112-35 rout by the Stanford Cardinal; the 77-point margin of victory was a record for a Pac-10 game. Second-year head coach Tia Jackson responded by revamping the starting lineup for Saturday’s game against Cal, a 62-34 loss. Washington has only one player on the roster who has not started a game this season.
The Cougars are currently on a five-game losing streak; they lost their Pac-10 opener to the Huskies and were swept on the Bay Area road trip. The Cougars are led offensively by a trio of guards, senior Katie Appleton (10.2 points per game) and freshmen April Cook (13.7) and Jazmine Perkins (14.6), but they are last in the conference in scoring defense (80.3 points per game).
Many of the Washington schools’ struggles stem from inexperience; both teams expect to start three true freshmen against the Ducks, and the Huskies have eight freshmen on the roster this season.
“I think both Washington and Washington State are kind of like wounded animals, and wounded animals are dangerous,” Smith said. “They’re gnarly and nasty and cranky. I feel like Washington and Washington State see us as an opportunity they have to take advantage of.”
If it’s up to Lilley, that will not happen. After being held scoreless by Arizona State guards Briann January and Katie Engelbrecht, the junior from Newhall, Calif., is looking to get her offensive groove back.
“I’m just trying to do what I can out there and give my hardest out there and take what the defense is giving me,” Lilley said.
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