Ducks Get Opening Weekend Split
Don Smalley

 

What a difference having Nia Jackson on the floor for the Ducks is.

 

Without her, Oregon falls to Washington State Thursday. With her, the Ducks defeat Washington in the most exciting game of the year.

 

Deanna Weaver nailed a three-pointer with just 15 seconds left to erase a 16-point second half deficit to give Oregon an 88-86 win over the Huskies Saturday afternoon in front of 1,687 at Matthew Knight Arena.

 

Jackson scored 19 points, including hitting 11-of-12 from the free throw line, dished out four assists and even grabbed six rebounds to lead Oregon to its first conference win of the season.

 

Ariel Thomas also burned the Dawgs from the outside by hitting 5-of-13 from the outside to lead the Ducks in points with 21. But it was Weaver's long distance from the right wing on an in-bounds pass for the 87-86 lead with 15 ticks remaining. It was Oregon's first lead since early in the game.

 

"Our players just outworked the opposition today," coach Paul Westhead said. "We just gutted it out. Deanna was in position to make the shot, but if we don't work hard enough, it's just another shot."

 

Weaver wound up with 13, to go along with Jasmin Holliday's 12 and Jordan Loera's 10.

 

Washington, making its first visit to Matthew Knight Arena, might wish it could go make to Mac Court. The Huskies held a commanding 70-54 lead with 11 minutes to go, but back-to-back threes threes from Lexi Peterson and Weaver cut the deficit to 70-60.

 

Holliday then knocked down a trey to bring Oregon to within seven at 70-63. Oregon eventually tied the game 76-76 with 4:29 left.

 

Washington was able to build its lead back up to 85-80 with just 1:30 left.

 

With some good defense and free throws from Jackson and Thomas, Oregon was able to set Weaver's heroics.

 

Oregon shot just 38 percent, but the Ducks were able to keep themselves within shouting distance of the Huskies by sinking 13 three-pointers and 27 free throws.

 

"If anyone saw these past two games, you can tell that we are just not lethal without Nia," Westhead said. "With Nia, she is just able to punch that ball through. No matter how you try to defend, she just creates problems for the defense."

 

Two nights before, no Jackson and no Amanda Johnson equaled a long night for the Oregon women's basketball team in its Pac-12 season opener.

 

Without their two best players, the usually offensive-minded Ducks were just offensive in a 75-48 loss to Washington State.

 

"We need to play better basketball and one area that really concerns me is shooting," said Westhead. "We just shot 26 percent. There's some defensive issues and some rebounding issues, but if you don't shoot better than 25 percent, then you're stuck."

 

The Ducks might be stuck for a while as Johnson is still out with a thumb injury and Jackson came to the arena with a swollen knee after having a minor procedure done earlier in the week.

 

While the offense just wasn't there, the defense was lacking, but a season-high 24 turnovers didn't help the cause either.

 

"We were reasonably okay on the defensive end. It was an offensive issue tonight, not to say that our defense was great, but it was definitely an offensive issue tonight," Westhead said. "The turnovers were incredible."

 

Trying to pick up some of the slack for the Ducks was Holliday, who scored a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.  Weaver added 10 points and eight boards.

 

"I just feel like I need to step up and be a leader on the court for the other girls," Holliday said. "There are big leaders missing when Amanda (Johnson) and Nia (Jackson) are out, so I just do what I can to fill that void."

 

The Cougars definitely took advantage of Oregon's ailments.

 

Washington State shot 42 percent for the game, but nearly 50 percent in the second half (17-of-36). The Cougars didn't need a great percentage as they took a commanding 38-21 lead into the halftime break.

 

A trio of Cougs led in scoring, including Jazmine Perkins and Rosetta Adzasu each putting in 15 points. Sage Romberg added 10 for WSU, who improved to 7-6 overall and 1-0 in Pac-12 play.

 

Washington State took control very early in the first half with an 11-0 run to take a 17-6 lead in the first seven minutes of action. The Cougars' biggest lead was 23 at 49-26 with 15:14 remaining in the game.

 

But the Ducks did manage a run of their own to keep the 1,777 inside Matthew Knight Arena alert.

 

A 14-2 run by the home team, capped off with a Loera three-pointer to cut the deficit to 51-40 with still 11:17 left.

 

But the Ducks just could not sustain the energy as they scored just six more points the rest of the way.

 

"Next time we need to come out hard in the first half instead of trying to come back in the second half," Holliday said. "We need to come out with a better attitude from the start and get big leads over teams instead of trying to come back the whole game."

 

Oregon will take to the road next weekend as it will play at Stanford on Thursday and Cal on Saturday.