University of Oregon
17-6, 6-6
Washington
16-7, 7-5
UO Rallies Back, Stuns No. 24 UW
02/07/16 | Women's Basketball
SEATTLE, Wash. – Down 17 points in the third quarter, the Oregon women's basketball team rallied back to stun No. 24 Washington, 75-63, in Seattle.
Oregon (17-6, 6-6 Pac-12) has won six of its last seven games, all by double digits. The victory over a top-25 opponent is the second this season for the Ducks, both on the road, after also knocking off North Carolina to start the year.
In the second half, with forward Jillian Alleyne on the bench with foul trouble for the majority of time, Oregon went 10-of-15 from three-point range and shot 58.3 percent overall from the field.
HOW IT HAPPENED: Washington jumped out to an early 9-0 lead as the Ducks missed their first four shots. Kat Cooper hit a pair of threes to get the Ducks on the board as Washington natives Cooper, Jordan Loera and Oti Gildon scored all 10 of Oregon's first quarter points.
Oregon cut the UW lead to six, 23-17, when Jacinta Vandenberg hit a jumper in the paint with 5:01 left in the second quarter. Washington responded, however, and went up by 14, its biggest lead of the game to that point, 33-19, going into halftime. Oregon shot just 29 percent in the first half. The Huskies had a 22-14 edge on rebounds and held Alleyne to no points and two rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.
Despite Alleyne on the bench, the Ducks came out on fire to start the third quarter, hitting four straight three-pointers to make it a 38-31 lead for the Huskies. Oregon went 6-for-8 from long range overall in the quarter to cut the Washington lead to just four points, 44-40, going into the fourth. UW led by as much as 17 points in the third quarter.
The Ducks tied it up on a free throw by Cooper, 51-51, with 6:47 left in the fourth quarter. From that moment Oregon went on a 13-2 run and led the Huskies, 63-53, with 3:38 remaining. The Ducks hit eight free throws in the final 40 seconds to ice the game.
QUOTABLE: Jacinta Vandenberg – “We had some good looks in the first half, they just didn't go down. We didn't give up and once we found some rhythm, shots started falling.”
UP NEXT: Oregon returns home to start a four-game homestand, starting with Utah on Friday.
