Oregon women's basketball ties program loss record after Washington State drops Ducks
In a defensive slugfest for most of Sunday afternoon’s game in Pullman, the Oregon women’s basketball team dropped a 71-61 contest to Washington State in its 11th straight loss.
That mark ties a program record for consecutive losses set over four decades ago.
“(WSU) knows who they are and what they are, and we’ve just never really figured that out,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said. “That’s on me as a coach. We just have to regroup … it’s disappointing.”
Phillipina Kyei, Kennedy Basham and Grace VanSlooten lead Ducks' scoring efforts
The first half was marred by poor shooting from both teams, as the Ducks trailed 10-8 after the first quarter and 25-20 at the halftime break.
The Ducks (11-18, 2-14 Pac-12) shot 28% in the first half and turned the ball over eight times, leading to 13 WSU points.
Though Oregon kept its turnovers under control in the second half, with just one over the last 20 minutes, Washington State outscored the Ducks, 26-15 in the third to take a 16-point lead into the final frame.
The Ducks made a game of it late, bringing it to single digits in the final moments, but couldn’t get close enough to threaten in the loss.
Phillipina Kyei led Oregon with 23 points and 15 rebounds, and Kennedy Basham had another strong scoring outing with 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting from the floor. Grace VanSlooten scored 16 points and had seven rebounds and five assists, as well.
What's next for Oregon
Oregon plays Cal on Thursday and Stanford on Saturday at Matthew Knight Arena for its last weekend of regular season play before the Pac-12 Tournament begins in Las Vegas the following Wednesday. If the Ducks lose to Cal on Thursday, it would set a new program record for consecutive losses with 12. Two losses this upcoming weekend would tie a program record for conference losses in a season with 16.
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on Twitter @AlecDietz.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Pac-12 women's basketball: WSU extends Oregon's losing streak to 11
