Taylor Lilley and Micaela Cocks are two names that will be salted throughout the program's record books for decades to come, but the senior guards had yet to defeat an Arizona State Sun Devil team during their tenure. Until Saturday afternoon.
The tandem in turn made clutch shots down the stretch and Oregon walked away with a 82-81 conquest over a team that had beaten the Ducks ten straight times. Lilley's 26 points topped the score sheet and with Oregon trailing by nine, her jumper just inside the fifteen minute mark started Oregon's comeback.
On their next possession an offensive rebound - Oregon had 22 on the night - earned Jasmin Holliday a pair from the line. After hitting the first but missing the second, Lilley picked off an ASU pass and Nia Jackson finished with a lay-up. Jackson reciprocated immediately, taking a steal on the inbound play and finding Lilley alone at the bucket.
Twice is nice, this time Lilley followed up another steal by Jackson with a trey and Oregon moved into the lead for the first time in the second half, 59-58.
Oregon forced 29 Arizona State turnovers, but a couple of their own allowed the Sun Devils to regain a three point lead just inside the eight minute mark. A lay-up from Lilley pushed the Ducks back into the lead for good at 65-64. Her trey after yet again stealing an inbound play put the house on its feet the rest of the way.
Another trey - by Cocks (20 pts.) - pushed the lead to seven but it was quickly cut to a single point when ASU's Danielle Orsillo - who paced the Sun Devils with 29 points - hit twice from deep.
Lilley was fouled and hit the first but missed the second free throw. Jasmin Holliday snared the rebound, giving Oregon another possession and when ASU overplayed Lilley's shot, she found Amanda Johnson behind the arc and the lead was back to five.
Inside the last two minutes, Cocks hit for a three and sank four of four from the line, sealing a victory she clearly took an extra measure of delight in having.
"We definitely knew that," she said of their bagel against the Devils. "It feels really good to beat them . If I could choose one team to beat it would be ASU."
"They felt a bit more important," said Cocks of her charity attempts. "I knew the game was on the line. I just concentrated on making the first one and let the second one fall."
"I definitely knew they were pressure free throws - but I just kept (repeating) my times tables and try not to think too much about them and hold my follow through."
While Stanford remains the showcase program in the conference, over the past five years, the Sun Devils have been amongst the next tier and several close defeats at the hands of ASU - particularly a couple of close calls in Tempe - put the Sun Devils in Oregon's sites perhaps more than any other conference foe.
ASU twice seemed ready to take an upper hand for good - building a seven point lead in the opening half and then an 11-point lead in the first five minutes of the second after Oregon had cut the first to a 44-43 halftime deficit.
"It's been a good weekend," said head coach Paul Westhead of the sweep of the desert schools. "The team played extremely hard despite giving up advantages at the start of the game and the start of the second half."
"The final 15 minutes of the game was about as good and as hard as we've played. We stepped up the press, we got some steals, made shots. Taylor Lilley made some big baskets to get us back in the game, Micaela Cocks made some timely shots."
None of the Ducks shot the ball particularly well, Lilley and Cocks combined for 15-34 from the floor although Cocks was a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line. As a team, Oregon shot 38.5% - 25-65 (9-24 3 pt). When ASU didn't turn the ball over, they put the ball in the hoop at a 64.6% clip - 31-48 (4-7 3pt).
The Ducks were able compensate by converting the 29 ASU turnovers into 39 points and Oregon's advantage on the offensive glass yielded 31 second chance points.
With only a pair of games remaining at Mac Court, Lilley and Cocks placed a nice exclamation point on their resumes with the benchmark win, a win that guarantees a winning season for the Ducks and improved their record to 16-8 overall, 7-5 in conference play. A greater challenge lies ahead, the Ducks travel to the Bay Area next and open the trip at Stanford on Thursday night.
Stanford defeated Oregon 100-80 at McArthur Court but the #2 ranked Cardinal was only able to pull away from the Ducks in the game's final five minutes.
"I think we are going to be fine," said Westhead of the upcoming trip. "We do not go anywhere with trepidation."
"As long as we are playing our press and run game - if you are going to beat us you are going to be tired."
"We played them a very good game," said Lilley of the earlier match-up with the Cardinal. "And so now we know with some tweaks I think we can have a good challenge with them."
Lilley and Cocks will make their final McArthur Court appearances against USC (Feb 25 - 7:00pm) and UCLA (Feb 27 - 2:00pm) before wrapping up the Pac-10 season on the road at Washington and Washington State.
