No. 7 Mississippi State Pulls Away Late To Hand Ducks First Loss

Friday, November 25

Honolulu, HI

5:00 PM

University of Oregon

4-1

Mississippi State

5-0

Mississippi State

Oregon

Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com

No. 7 Mississippi State Pulls Away Late To Hand Ducks First Loss

11/25/16 | Women's Basketball

Box Score #7 MSU 75, Oregon 63

OREGON WILL LOOK TO REBOUND WITH ITS SECOND OF THREE GAMES AT THE RAINBOW WAHINE SHOWDOWN SATURDAY (7:30 PM PT) VS. HOST HAWAII

By: Nate Krueger

HONOLULU, Hawaii – The Oregon women's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season at the hands of No. 7 Mississippi State, 75-63, on Friday night in its first game at the Rainbow Wahine Showdown.

How It Happened: Mississippi State (5-0) took a 20-13 lead in the opening quarter before Oregon (4-1) finished the period with four straight to cut the Bulldog lead to three, 20-17, with freshman Mallory McGwire beating the buzzer with a lay-in on a nice pass from fellow freshman Morgan Yaeger.

Another midrange jumper by McGwire got Oregon within one, 22-21, early in the second quarter before an 8-2 MSU run gave the Bulldogs a seven-point lead. A three-pointer by Lexi Bando cut the lead to three, 31-28, but Mississippi State finished the quarter with another 8-2 stretch to go into halftime in front, 39-30.

Five quick points to start the second half cut the MSU lead to 39-35, with freshman Sabrina Ionescu opening the scoring with a three-pointer. A lay-in by Ionescu two minutes later brought the deficit to two, and another three by the freshman got the Ducks within two, 44-42, with six minutes to play in the quarter. Mississippi State built its lead back up to six, 53-47, and both teams went without a field goal over the final three minutes of the quarter.

After trading baskets through the first few minutes of the final quarter, lay-ups by Bando and Yaeger pulled Oregon within three, 57-53, but two free throws and a big three-pointer MSU's Roshunda Johnson brought the Bulldog lead to nine. Buckets by senior Jacinta Vandenberg and sophomore Maite Cazorla cut the lead to seven with 3:25 to play, but the Bulldogs were able to hit free throws down the stretch and pull away for a 12-point victory.

Who Stood Out: Bando and Ionescu each finished with 14 points to lead the Ducks, while Bando led the team with six rebounds and Ionescu grabbed five. Cazorla put up 11 points with a pair of assists. Freshman Ruthy Hebard earned her third straight start and finished with five points and four rebounds. McGwire finished with six points, all in the first half. The Ducks shot 44.2 percent the field and 27.8 percent from three-point range, while the Bulldogs shot 51.9 percent from the floor.

What It Means: Despite losing its first game of the year, Oregon showed that it has the ability to play with some of the top competition in the country. The Ducks played the Bulldogs tough late into the fourth quarter before free throws distanced the two teams. The Ducks also struggled with foul trouble, finishing with 27 to the Bulldogs' 19 with Ionescu and Cazorla each picking up four.

Notable: For the fifth straight game, Head Coach Kelly Graves got all 14 eligible players into the game, with nine putting up points … The Ducks saw their streak of 16 straight wins in nonconference games, not including postseason, come to an end. UO's last nonconference loss before tonight came on Dec. 21, 2014.

Up Next: The Ducks will remain in Honolulu for the second of three games in three days at the Rainbow Wahine Showdown, taking on host Hawaii on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. PT.