No. 5 Ducks crush Cougs by 40 points
Alexys Swedlund becomes 19th WSU player to score 1,000 points as team drops second straight game
OLIVIA WOLF | DAILY EVERGREEN FILE
WSU junior guard Chanelle Molina runs towards the basket as Saint Mary’s redshirt junior guard Jasmine Forcadilla prepares to stop her during a game Nov. 11 in Beasley Coliseum.
January 6, 2019
WSU women’s basketball wrapped up a three-game road trip to start conference play with a blowout 98-58 loss to No. 5 Oregon on Sunday in Eugene.
Senior guard Alexys Swedlund became the 19th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points in the game. She joins teammate Borislava Hristova, who accomplished the feat last season.
Oregon (13-1, 2-0) led for almost the entire first quarter, but WSU (6-8, 1-2) stayed within striking distance until the last two minutes when the Ducks pulled ahead by 10 points. With four seconds left, freshman guard Cherilyn Molina hit a shot to make the score 25-17 after one quarter.
The Ducks controlled the second quarter, outscoring the Cougars 24-12 to take a 49-29 lead into halftime. Oregon secured 27 rebounds and committed four turnovers in the first half while WSU only got 13 rebounds and turned the ball over eight times.
Junior guard Chanelle Molina led the team with 10 points at the half and Hristova added nine points.
Prior to the start of the second half, Head Coach Kamie Ethridge said the Cougars failed to execute in the first 20 minutes and turned the ball over too many times.
“We didn’t compete very well,” Ethridge said. “We’re playing a great team and they make you pay for mistakes, and we’ve made a lot of them. We helped them out and you don’t really need to do that, they’re pretty good on their own.”
WSU opened the second half strong and kept pace with the Ducks as Oregon only outscored the Cougars by six points in the third quarter.
With 2:24 left in the third quarter, Swedlund scored her 1,000th career point in a WSU uniform on a three-pointer. The Cougars trailed 77-51 after three quarters.
In the fourth quarter, Oregon dominated the Cougars, outscoring them 21-7 in the final 10 minutes to secure the victory.
Chanelle finished the game with 14 points, five rebounds and six assists, and Hristova added 13 points on 5-13 shooting.
Oregon junior forward Ruthy Hebard tore up the WSU defense all night, finishing with 34 points and nine rebounds on 16-21 shooting.
The Cougars return to Pullman to face Utah 7 p.m. Friday in Beasley Coliseum. The game can also be seen live on Pac-12 Networks.
