University of Oregon
Washington State
Duck Women Drub Washington State, 51-34
02/23/07 | Women's Basketball
PULLMAN, Wash. ? The University of Oregon women's basketball team inched one step closer to securing a Day 1 bye at the upcoming 2007 State Farm Pac-10 Tournament in San Jose, Calif., sending Washington State to its 16th consecutive conference loss, 51-34, Thursday at Beasley Coliseum.
The Ducks (16-11, 8-9 Pac-10) moved one game in front of UCLA (13-16, 7-10) for sixth place and can lock up that position in the standings with a win over Washington or a Bruin loss at Cal on Saturday.
Cicely Oaks paced the Ducks with a game-high 12 points and Eleanor Haring added 11 in the wire-to-wire victory. Kaela Chapdelaine had a team and career-best eight rebounds.
“This is always a tough place to play,” Oaks said, referencing last year's road loss on the Palouse. “They play physical, but we didn't back down and stayed with our game plan.”
WSU (5-22, 1-16) received eight points from freshman Marisa Stotler and Kate Benz led all players with 11 rebounds.
Both teams struggled in the early going, combining for just 30 first-half points as UO hit the locker room with a 19-11 lead. Oregon's defense stifled the Cougars, limiting the home team to 15.4 percent shooting on 4-of-26 field goals.
WSU stayed within eight points, trailing 38-30 with 6:43 to play before the Ducks' used a 10-0 run to put the game out of reach.
Oregon now heads to Seattle for the regular season finale against the Huskies, winners over Oregon State on Thursday.
The Pac-10 tournament runs from March 2-5 with the bottom four teams playing on the opening day. Should the Ducks finish sixth, they would play No. 3 seed Cal on March 3.
QUACK TRACKS: The Ducks have won back-to-back Pac-10 road games for the first time since January 2004 ... FR G Micaela Cocks made her first career start for the Ducks ... The crowd of 309 was the smallest UO has played in front of this season.
