SEATTLE – Though Oregon gave it reason to, the Washington women’s basketball team wasn’t about to feel sorry for the Ducks on Saturday.
Oregon had just 10 healthy players after losing all-conference senior center Cathrine Kraayeveld to a viral infection in her left elbow on Friday. In addition, the Ducks’ bus broke down while transporting the team to Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
The Huskies, though, faced their own adversity and turned it into a positive. Junior guard Kayla Burt, an Arlington High product, broke her nose after taking an elbow to the face 12 minutes into the contest. Rather than fall apart after the loss of its leading scorer, Washington heated up and rolled to an 81-57 Pacific-10 Conference victory in front of a season-high crowd of 5,242.
The win completed a successful home stand against the Oregon schools. The Huskies beat Oregon State 84-53 on Thursday.
It was the first time Washington won back-to-back games by double figures this season, and was the most points scored in back-to-back games by the Huskies this year. Washington has scored at least 80 points in four of its past five games after reaching that mark just once in the first 19.
“When Kayla went down, that was tough,” UW coach June Daugherty said. “She is a super leader for this program. … I think that it fired us up even more to play with Kayla not being able to go.”
The Huskies continued their recent aggressive play, out-rebounding Oregon 49-36 and forcing 20 turnovers. The UW grabbed 24 rebounds on the offensive end and turned them into 25 second-chance points.
“The big thing that we talked about was let’s build on Thursday night,” Daugherty said. “Build on the intensity and go out and play harder than we did last time out … Rebounding, our defense and our matchups, we really did some great things tonight and that allowed us to get into our running game.”
Washington took control with a 15-0 run at the end of the first half and start of the second, turning a 38-34 lead into a 53-34 advantage.
With the UW leading 38-34, Nicole Castro sank a 3-pointer from the left wing to give the Huskies a seven-point lead at halftime. The shot snapped a near-five minute stretch where Washington went without a field goal.
The Huskies then scored the first 12 points of the second half, including back-to-back 3-pointers by Meadowdale High alum Kristen O’Neill and Cameo Hicks. Hicks scored nine of her team-high 14 points in the first 4:48 of the second half.
Washington was 9-for-22 on 3-pointers, finishing one short of its season-high for 3s made in a game.
“They had a great running game and a great outside game,” Oregon coach Bev Smith said. “They pressured the ball on defense. They are playing hard and they are playing well.”
The Huskies showed good patience on offense early, going without a turnover for the first 10 minutes of the game. A 10-3 Husky run opened up a 35-26 lead with 5:06 to play. That was impressive given that Washington did it without three starters, including Burt. O’Neill and Jill Bell missed much of the first half with foul trouble.
Other players stepped up, including freshman guard Dominique Banks, who scored nine of her 13 points in the first half.
Smith said it was clearly a different UW team than the one the Ducks beat 86-77 on Jan. 13.
“They’ve found their continuity and their identity,” Smith said. “The first game they were a lot more of a half-court team. Now they’ve found a lineup that’s a little smaller and they run at you. You have to be able to deal with that and we didn’t deal with it today.”
Noteworthy: Kraayeveld, a native of Kirkland, missed her third straight game in Seattle. Smith said she complained of soreness in her arm on Friday morning and the elbow was swollen and had little range-of-motion. … The Oregon bus broke down near the I-5 and I-520 interchange. The players were then transported to the arena in a hotel van. … Burt’s nose was reset and Daugherty said she hopes to have the guard back for the Washington State game. … The Huskies are now 7-7 at home. Washington hasn’t had a losing record at home in its history.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
