Oregon and Washington Recap

Now that was a game. The Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team had 4.5 seconds left to tie up a 72-69 game against the Washington Huskies, but Mollie Williams stole the ball from Danielle Love at half-court. Williams made up for two missed free throws that would have iced the game, but Love rebounded the second miss to give the Ducks hope. However, Williams went from potential goat to hero with a clinching steal to trounce their rivals (13-11) who were favored to win.

With about eight minutes left, the Washington Huskies built a seemingly insurmountable 59-44 lead, but they cut the lead to three points after a 19-7 scoring run which lasted for nearly six minutes. Jazmine Davis and Amanda Johnson were the stars of the night and traded blows in crunch time just as they did for the entire game. The Huskies could have put the Ducks away earlier, but they let them stick around due to missed free throws. In fact, the Huskies shot under 60% from the line in this game. The Ducks should have been run out of the game with eight minutes left, but they chipped away at a huge lead and somehow took the game to the final seconds. They should have won against the Huskies, but an optimist will look at their near comeback.

However, the optimistic approach isn’t necessarily the best way to analyze a defeat. Sure the Ducks made a spirited comeback and nearly stole the game away, but the key thing is that they lost. Oregon should never have been in the position to be down by double-digits. Playing on the road didn’t help them at all, so this isn’t a “bad” loss when looking at things from a standings perspective. However, the Ducks had a disappointing game against a rival, when they were supposed to knock down a rival.

This game was all about the two stars; Amanda Johnson and Jazmine Davis. Johnson went 4-9 from three-point range with 26 points and 12 rebounds. She had six turnovers, but she also used up a large amount of possessions. Aside from Johnson, no other player had double-digit points on the team. Davis was also 9-19, but she did not fare out as well from downtown (1-6). She added seven rebounds but was actually a little worse than Johnson yesterday. Still, she was great and was the main reason why the Huskies came out on top.

Star center Regina Rogers also put forth a quality effort (+16 EFF) with 15 points and 10 rebounds on just eight shots. She shot 5-8 from the floor and from the free throw line.

The Huskies had an eFG% of 50.9, while the Ducks’s eFG% was an incredibly inefficient 39%. Their fast-paced style did not work out for them, as the Ducks averaged a meager .84 points per possession. Meanwhile, the Huskies averaged a more respectable .90 points per possession and did not have as many possessions as Oregon. Washington committed a ghastly 21 turnovers, while the Ducks took care of the rock and had 11 TOs. However, rebounding and shooting were the keys to this game, as the Huskies dominated the boards 47-35 and were the far better shooting team.

The Huskies definitely deserved to beat the Oregon Ducks, because they were the much more efficient team. They almost beat themselves at home, however, due to their carelessness with the ball and poor free-throw shooting. Washington and Oregon are both 5-7 in the Pac-12 after this game, and this was a crushing blow for the Ducks.

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