Lady Ducks Fight Hard, Fall Late to OSU 67-60

The Oregon Ducks fought valiantly tonight, eventually falling to #11 Oregon State Beavers 67-60. The Lady Ducks led as late as the 2:50 mark of the fourth quarter, but could not stop Sydney Wiese down the stretch. Wiese scored 23 points and grabbed 5 rebounds for the Beavers, who also got 16 points and 7 rebounds from Breanna Brown and 11 points from Marie Gulich. Oregon was led by Sabrina Ionescu’s double-double (21 points, 10 rebounds) and Mallory McGwire’s 12 points. The Ducks were outrebounded by OSU 46 to 29.

McGwire powered Oregon in the first quarter, scoring 8 points on 4-5 shooting. The Lady Ducks took a 6 point lead halfway through the period after two jumpers by McGwire and a layup by Maite Cazorla, leading OSU 13-7. Then McGwire and Ruthy Hebard got into foul trouble, and Oregon State went on a 8-4 run to end the quarter. Jumpers by Jacinta Vandenberg with 37 seconds left and Ionescu with 4 seconds remaining gave the Ducks a 17-15 lead at the end of the quarter.

Then Oregon went on a scoring drought for the first half of the second quarter, as Taylor Kalmer and Brown scored 4 points apiece to push OSU out to a 6 point lead 23-17. The Lady Ducks fought their way back into contention, tying the game up on a Oti Gildon layup with 2:40 remaining. Then Wiese scored 6 points in the final minute, including 3 free throws with 2 seconds left after she was fouled by Cazorla on a desperation attempt. The Beavers took a 31-25 lead into halftime. The Ducks were led by McGwire (8 points) and Ionescu (7 points) in the first half, in which they were outrebounded by 16. Oregon State was paced by Wiese (10 points) and Brown (8 points, 5 rebounds.)

The Lady Ducks looked to get Hebard untracked in the 3rd quarter, as she scored 5 points in the first 3 minutes of the 3rd quarter. McGwire picked up her third foul with 8:28 remaining, and Oregon State was able to maintain a sizable lead to start the period, but Oregon began to chip away at the deficit. Ionescu scored a 3 and a layup to tie the game at 40 with 2:30 remaining. Layups by Gulich and Kolbie Orum put the Beavers up by 4, but they were answered by a Sierra Campisano jumper and a Cazorla layup as time expired to tie the game up 44-44. Oregon shot 50% from the field and 100% from 3 in the quarter, as Ionescu scored 8 points and Hebard 5 to fuel the comeback.

The Ducks ran out to a 6 point lead to start the fourth on scores by Cazorla, Ionescu, and Lexi Bando. Then Wiese took over, scoring 11 points over the final 6:33. Her final 3 gave the Beavers a 4 point lead with 1:36 remaining. Oregon couldn’t recover, going on to lose 67-60. Ionescu scored 6 points in the period, and McGwire added 4. Oregon State shot 77.8% in the final quarter, and 75% from 3. Up next the Ducks play on February 3 at the Arizona Wildcats at 5:00 PM.