The Huskies dipped, then dug deep.
The Washington women’s basketball team survived a scare from Oregon State after leading by double digits for much of a 64-59 win on Friday night at Alaska Airlines Arena.
Elle Ladine nailed a three-pointer followed by a fouled, hitting a free throw to open a game-high, 17-point Washington advantage early in the fourth quarter. Oregon State got hot and nearly blew the lead apart, trailing by four with three minutes left in the game.
Lauren Schwartz’s jumper gave the Huskies breathing room and the Beavers got no closer.
Regarding the passive late play, Huskies coach Tina Langley thinks she’s identified a trend.
“We have one of the kindest groups of people you’ll ever meet in a locker room, and we have a tendency to not want to get things wrong sometimes,” she said. “I think that makes us play a little bit less aggressive at the end of games.”
The start was solid, and the game was tied for only the first eight seconds. Back-to-back threes from Haley Van Dyke and Trinity Oliver helped the Huskies race to a 10-0 start. Van Dyke supplied two of the Huskies’ four three-pointers and UW’s lead dropped below eight only briefly the rest of the quarter.
“I thought we did a nice job sharing the basketball early,” Langley said. “Did a great job executing and playing with pace.”
Jayda Noble sank another three to open up a 15-point lead. UW (14-11, 6-9 Pac-12) couldn’t sustain that pace, and the Beavers played it mostly even before the half. The Huskies outscored the Beavers 10-2 off turnovers in the first half.
Raegan Beers cut the Beavers’ (11-15, 3-12) deficit to eight heading into the break. She led her team in points and rebounds for much of the game, but foul trouble limited her impact early in the second half. She fouled out with less than a minute to play.
Van Dyke led UW in the half with eight points and the game with a season-high 17. Noble paced the Huskies with a career-high nine assists and eight rebounds.
“When we do dip, in the past we’ve had a hard time coming back from that. But I think we’re slowly — no, quickly — getting that back,” Van Dyke said.
“We’re learning how to get out of that dip.”
Noble swatted away a loose ball and cruised to the other end with Garfield High alum Dalayah Daniels (11 points, seven rebounds) to get the Huskies rolling again. Van Dyke’s third three of the game opened up a 16-point lead, making it 28-44 late in the third quarter.
Ladine (11) and Schwartz (10) joined Daniels and Van Dyke in double-digit scoring. UW finished with 10 three-pointers, a season high.
It was a far cry from the Huskies’ last outing at No. 25 Colorado. The Huskies never led and managed a season-low 43 points. Schwartz led the way with nine and Van Dyke held the rebound lead with seven in that one.
“The mountains is an incredibly hard trip. You’ve watched team after team go out there and struggle,” Langley said.
“The way this team came in and prepared this week in practice, from their focus to their effort in practice — just an incredible week of work by them. You can see that from the start of the game.”
Oregon State entered the game on a six-game losing streak. Just before the Beavers’ most recent victory, they fell to the Huskies 79-67 on Jan. 15 in Corvallis.
This season marks the first time UW has swept Oregon State since the 2012-13 campaign, and the first time the Huskies have beaten them at home since 2015, according to UW.
“We had people coming in off the bench, giving great minutes,” Noble said. “It’s not necessarily points, it’s rebounds, it’s assists, all that good stuff. It was just a good team effort for sure.”
The Huskies, who are enjoying their best conference and overall record to this point since 2016-17, will celebrate senior day on Sunday afternoon when they host Oregon (14-12, 5-10) in the final home game of the regular season. The first round of the Pac-12 Tournament is set for March 1.
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