Oregon Women Drub Washington State, 51-34

Cicely Oaks paced the Ducks with a game-high 12 points.

Cicely Oaks was 5-of-11 from the field for 12 points against WSU. Photo: goducks.com

PULLMAN, Wash. - The University of Oregon women’s basketball team inched one step closer to securing a Day 1 bye at the upcoming 2007 State Farm Pac-10 Tournament in San Jose, Calif., sending Washington State to its 16th consecutive conference loss, 51-34, Thursday at Beasley Coliseum.

The Ducks (16-11, 8-9 Pac-10) moved one game in front of UCLA (13-16, 7-10) for sixth place and can lock up that position in the standings with a win over Washington or a Bruin loss at Cal on Saturday.

Cicely Oaks paced the Ducks with a game-high 12 points and Eleanor Haring added 11 in the wire-to-wire victory.

Kaela Chapdelaine had a team and career-best eight rebounds.

“This is always a tough place to play,” Oaks said, referencing last year’s road loss on the Palouse. “They play physical, but we didn’t back down and stayed with our game plan.”

WSU (5-22, 1-16) received eight points from freshman Marisa Stotler and Kate Benz led all players with 11 rebounds.

Both teams struggled in the early going, combining for just 30 first-half points as UO hit the locker room with a 19-11 lead.

Oregon’s defense stifled the Cougars, limiting the home team to 15.4 percent shooting on 4-of-26 field goals.

WSU stayed within eight points, trailing 38-30 with 6:43 to play before the Ducks’ used a 10-0 run to put the game out of reach.

Oregon now heads to Seattle for the regular season finale against the Huskies, winners over Oregon State on Thursday.

The Pac-10 tournament runs from March 2nd-5th with the bottom four teams playing on the opening day.

Should the Ducks finish sixth, they would play No. 3 seed Cal on March 3rd.

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