The Washington women’s basketball team split their weekend road trip to Oregon this past weekend.
Friday night the 9th place Huskies fell in Eugene 65-58 but picked up a win Sunday night in Corvallis, 79-67.
Now 10-6 overall and 2-4 in the conference, Washington has a strong fourth-quarter drive proved futile as they came up short against No. 21 Oregon. Often a heated matchup, the ball flowed back and forth down the stretch between the two teams. However, it was rival Oregon who triumphed in the end, reeling in a 7-point victory.
UW got off to a strong start, but suffered from a bit of an offensive lag midway through the first quarter, which allowed the Ducks to capitalize on and build a slight lead.
Both teams played great defense, but that meant that turnovers also plagued both squads toward the end of the first quarter, causing minutes-long scoring droughts on both ends. As halftime inched closer, Oregon grabbed hold of an eight-point lead, which held up as the clock counted down, despite collecting eight turnovers, two less than Washington at that point.
During the fourth quarter, Washington was able to inch back in, and eventually snatched back the lead after a few too many Oregon turnovers. A last-minute three-pointer banked in by Oregon’s Taya Hanson , however, unofficially sealed the deal for the Ducks, who were even able to add a few more to the board to secure the seven-point victory.
The Huskies bounced back once they arrived in Corvallis, with junior forward Lauren Schwartz and and freshman guard Hannah Stines taking the reins for UW, putting up a combined 22 points for the half and giving the team a 20-point lead over the Beavers.
That domination began to lag about midway through the second half, when particularly in the fourth quarter, when the Huskies went just 4-13 from the field. The lead was soon diminished to under ten points due to another offensive drop off, but UW was able to pull out a 12-point victory over Oregon State.
Washington exited out of its Sunday matchup shooting 55.6-percent from the field, and 53.8-percent from the three-point line – a significant improvement from its game agains Oregon, when it shot 41-percent in the field, and a mere 13.3-percent from behind the arc.
Next on the Huskies’ schedule is a round against the LA schools at Hec Edmunson Pavilion as UCLA comes to town Friday night with a 7pm tip-off. USC follows suit with a noon tip on Sunday.
