Huskies get off to a slow start at Oregon State, lose 98-68 in women’s basketball

The Huskies dropped their fourth consecutive women’s basketball game – a 98-68 defeat at Oregon State on Tuesday night – beneath a flurry of three-pointers from the Beavers. 

Playing their second game since returning from a 10-day quarantine due to positive COVID-19 tests from two players, the short-handed Washington women were overwhelmed from the start in Corvallis and suffered their second-most lopsided defeat of the season. 

The game Tuesday in Gill Coliseum originally was scheduled for last Friday and rescheduled to give the Huskies, who had been restricted to relatively light workouts by their medical staff, time to recover from a 1½-week layoff.

Washington managed to keep things reasonably close during the 69-52 defeat Sunday at No. 13 Oregon, but this one got away from UW in a hurry. 

Oregon State scored the first seven points and led 15-4 after 4½ minutes while connecting on its first five shots. During that time, UW shot 2 of 9 from the field. 

The Beavers, who led 25-14 after the first quarter, delivered an early knockout in the second quarter while outscoring the Huskies 29-17. 

“They couldn’t miss,” UW coach Jody Wynn said of the Beavers. “They darn near shot 100% in the second quarter. They made the extra pass. Just high-IQ players that found open teammates who were able to knock down and capitalize on the looks that they got. It was their night.” 

Washington was down by 27 points (49-22) with 3:05 left in the second quarter and went into halftime trailing 54-31. 

The second half didn’t get any better for UW, which was doubled up 62-31 with 6:53 left in the third quarter after a layup by OSU’s Sasha Goforth. 

The Huskies never got closer than 27 points the rest of the way. 

Washington, which had nine available scholarship players, played everyone at least 16 minutes. 

Quay Miller scored 20 points, Haley Van Dyke 15 and Tameiya Sadler 12 for UW, which fell to 4-7 and 1-7 Pac-12. 

One of the few bright spots for the Huskies was their ability to draw fouls, but they converted just 19 of 32 free throws. 

The Huskies held OSU’s leading scorers Aleah Goodman and Taylor Jones to nine points apiece, but they had no defense for Goforth, who sank her first eight shots and converted 8 of 10 field goals, including all six three-point attempts for a game-high 23 points. 

Taya Corosdale finished with 16 points, Talia von Oelhoffen 13 and Ellie Mack 12 for Oregon State (4-5, 2-5), which snapped a five-game losing streak. 

The Beavers drained 18 of 27 three-pointers, which tied a team record for the most three-point field goals and tied the mark for a Pac-12 conference game. 

It was the most points by a UW opponent since Mississippi State scored 103 on Dec. 20, 2018. 

“They just caught fire,” Wynn said. “They didn’t miss. It was an unbelievable shooting performance. It’s like watching Steph Curry hit the bottom of the net over and over again. And it wasn’t just one player although Sasha was fantastic for them.  

“Ellie Mack was hitting threes. They spread the wealth. They all were able to knock down any open shot that they got. I credit their offense. I know our defense has to get better. … We did a really good job on two of their big three (scorers), but then Sasha and their role players just go off on us.” 

Washington shot 34.4% from the field, including 7 of 24 on three-pointers. 

The Huskies’ game this Friday against California has been postponed due to COVID-19 issues within the Golden Bears program. UW meets No. 6 Stanford on Sunday at home.

“We’re pretty banged up. It’s probably a good thing that we’re not playing on Friday,” Wynn said. “We used all nine because we needed to. 

“But I will say, the girls wanted to compete. It’s not that they were dreading this opportunity. They were excited and looking forward to it. They’re not quitters. They want to play. They want to compete. They want to get better. They want to use this year to improve individually as well as collectively. To me, I can rock with young women that want to compete.”