University of Oregon
Oregon State
Ducks Win Third Straight, Top Beavers 64-55
02/05/05 | Women's Basketball
EUGENE, Ore. ? It wasn't graceful. But it was a win ... and the Oregon women's basketball team's third in a row, as it defeated Oregon State 64-55 before a season-high crowd of 5,245 fans Saturday at McArthur Court.
Senior forward Cathrine Kraayeveld, playing in her 100th career game, was the Ducks' lone double-digit scorer with 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
Oregon improved to 15-6 and 8-4 overall. The Ducks also are 10-1 at home and 7-0 in conference play. Meanwhile, Oregon State lost for the fourth game in a row at McArthur Court and dropped to 6-16 and 1-11. It was the 12th time this year Oregon has held a team to fewer than 60 points.
The Ducks, who trailed just once early in the game, led 61-38 after two Kraayeveld free throws wiht 6:12 remaining. Although the game was rarely in doubt, Oregon didn't finish strong as the Beavers whittled the Ducks' lead to 62-51 with 1:10 left.
“It feels good to get a win,” said Kraayeveld, who had her 18th double-figure scoring game this year. “We're not too happy about the whole game in general, though. We got comfortable with our lead. We needed to keep pushing it.”
“We wanted to keep them off the boards, and continue to put pressure on defense,” Oregon State coach Judy Spoelstra said. “That ruffled their feathers a little bit. We had 11 turnovers (in the first half), half of them unforced. We did much better in the second with only six.”
Oregon senior guard Corrie Mizusawa notched her third double-digit assist game of the year with 10 on the night. She had nine alone in the first half and got her 10th on a skip bounce pass to Cicely Oaks for a 3-pointer with 13:18 left in the game.
“She's a great, true point guard,” Kraayeveld said of Mizusawa. “We missed that before she got here. She can thread the needle with her passes and she's done a good job taking drives and making shots.”
Oregon coach Bev Smith agreed. “(Corrie) has had three great games here at home and has played well defensively against some of the best guards in the league,” she said. “Tonight she did a great job of setting the tempo offensively and defensively.”
Mizusawa, who also had seven points and just one turnover, has had 28 assists combined the last three games and is now sixth all-time at Oregon for assists in a single season with 148. The record is held by Jacquie Semeniuk (190).
“I have a knack for seeing everything,” said Mizusawa, the Pac-10 assists leader and second in the nation. “Especially all our good shooters. I know my personnel. I know where they'll be and what kind of shots they like to take.”
Shannon Howell led all scorers with 18 points while Mandy Close added 12 and Casey Bunn 10 for the Beavers.
Kristen Forristall came off the bench to score nine for the Ducks while Eleanor Haring had eight. Brandi Davis, in her first start of the year, finished with five points and tied a career-high with four steals.
Oregon next travels to play Thursday at Washington State at 7 p.m. and Washington on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Ducks and Huskies will be televised live on Fox Sports Net.
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