Oregon Ducks Women's Basketball Vs. Washington Huskies Recap

The good news for the Ducks is that they scored the most points the team has managed since the conference opener when they fell to UCLA 80-89. The bad news is, they gave up 97 to the Huskies. In the 97-71 defeat, Oregon allowed 18 team three pointers and 11 from senior Kristi Kingma, both of which are conference records. Kingma scored 35 for Washington and Heather Corral added another 16 as the Huskies out shot Oregon from the opening whistle. Jillian Alleyne led the Ducks with 20 and Ariel Thomas, in her first action in two weeks scored 12 in defeat. The Ducks struggled to stymie Washington's offensive rebounding and second chance points as the Huskies put 30 on the board from second chance points alone.

The Ducks struggled to contain Washington's outside game in the first half. The Huskies went 9-18 in the first including 5 from Kristi Kingma who led all scorers at the half with 17. Although the rebound battle was almost even, the Ducks surrendered 9 offensive boards which lead to 15 Husky second chance points. Washington was able to build a lead thanks in part to their timely rebounding but also Oregon's general inability to shoot the ball as they shot only 35.5% from the field and 18% from three. The bright spot of the half for Oregon was Liz Brenner who tallied 10 points and 6 rebounds to lead the Ducks in both statistics. Brenner was aided by 8 from Amanda Delgado who connected on Oregon's only three point makes in the half. After the game, Coach Westhead said that he could point to roughly 10 plays where the Ducks had good looks at the basket in the first half which he feels could have swung the momentum in the game possibly into the Ducks favor.

The second half started much the same way the first half did with Washington hitting a pair of threes to push the lead to 23. From that point on, the game was about Kingma chasing the record books as she fell just one three pointer short of tying the NCAA record for threes in a game. Alleyne started to come alive in the second half for Oregon who was in double figures in the half, scoring 13 and snagging 5 boards in the second stanza. The Ducks also shot well in the second half, going 50% from the field.

Oregon faces off next against Washington State, the only conference foe that the Ducks have beaten this season. Having Thomas at full speed will be a boost to the Ducks as Thomas played arguably her best game of the season in the Palouse. Oregon won that game by a single basket and hope to repeat and get another win against WSU on Sunday.