It wouldn't be Mac Court without the smell of burning popcorn or a dead mouse on the floor of press row.

But the very last hurrah for the 84-year old building also featured an Oregon victory over the Huskies as the Duck women defeated Washington 68-64 to even their conference record to 2-2.

"They did not want to lose this game. It is a forever win," Oregon coach Paul Westhead said. "Five years, 10 years, 84 years from now someone will be remembering."

The 2,854 Duck faithful was almost witnessed an epic collapse by their Ducks when Oregon jumped on Washington 27-10 in the first 10 minutes then saw that lead evaporate over the next five. 

The two teams played neck and neck the rest of the way but as the game wore on one got the sense that Oregon would not let this one get way.

Nia Jackson led the way with 22 points and Nicole Canepa chipped in 15 for the home Ducks. But it was Danielle Love's three treys late in the game that helped Oregon eventually pull away.

"We are still evolving. We are an interesting team," Westhead said. "There is no gimme for us.  There is no gimme for a win or loss. We are a competitive team. If Nia is on, it really helps the rest of us."

Besides leading the Ducks in scoring, Jackson also dished out seven assists and grabbed four rebounds.

"This year, it is a team effort," Jackson said. "No matter what game, every player has to play to the max."

There is no one specific go-to person on this team, but when Jackson is controlling the ball and passing it around, Oregon is a tough team to beat. The Huskies did manage to keep it close thanks to a poor shooting percentage on the Ducks' part.

Oregon shot a miserable 31 percent from the field on 20-for-64 shooting. The usually reliable Amanda Johnson struggled with her stroke, shooting just 2-of-14 for just four points.

"We need to knock down shots," Jackson said. "When we do not make baskets we have to create turnovers, play defense, and make free throws. We need to get in the gym.

"We have some slumps and coach gets on us about playing hard for 40 minutes. This is another example of that, but we picked it up. I cannot complain too much."

Despite their shooting difficulties, Oregon did hit a number of key baskets down the stretch to build a 66-60 lead. But Oregon missed their final six free throws to allow the Dawgs to hang around long after they should have been done.

Kristi Kingma led Washington with 21 points and Marjorie Heard added 18. Duck fans will get used to the name Kingma very soon as Kristi's brother Brett signed a letter of intent to play for Dana Altman's men's basketball team.

But Kristi can at least tell Brett that she was able to play inside McArthur Court, albeit in a loss. The Duck women were bound and determined to close out the old place with one more Oregon win.

"It means a lot. We had to win our last game at Mac Court," Jackson said. "Our team had to play with all our effort, because of everyone that came before us. The last thing we wanted was to lose. I knew we would win. It was a little scary, but I knew we would pull out. We have been pulling out games. The fans were great and we had a lot of energy. Lots of things fueled us."

Oregon will go down to Los Angeles to take on USC on Thursday and UCLA on Saturday before playing its first game inside Matt Knight Arena Sunday, Jan. 23.