The losing streak has reached six now for the WSU women’s basketball team with a pair of losses this weekend to the Oregon schools.

WSU (12-11, 3-9) put together its most uncharacteristic performance of the year in a 73-48 loss to Oregon (17-6, 6-6) on Friday before giving the No. 9 Oregon State Beavers (20-3, 11-1) all they could handle for 35 minutes before falling 54-45 in the final period.

Oregon

Cold shooting and late rotations by the Cougs coupled with an effective press and fast-paced attack from UO doomed WSU in the first half, before the game really even began.

Two three-pointers made by the Ducks plus three free throws off a shooting foul on sophomore forward Louise Brown put the score at 13-2 Oregon just 3:39 into the game, forcing Head Coach June Daugherty to call a timeout.

It would set the tone for the rest of the evening.

“I think timid is a good word, “Daugherty said of her team’s offensive play in attacking the UO full-court press. “Honestly, I was a little surprised to see that from us. But like I said, we worked on it, we knew that it was coming, but we didn’t attack it the way we should have. I don’t know why, but we’ve got to figure it out real quick.”

With 12 turnovers committed at the half, the Oregon press made it tough for the Cougs to get in any sort of rhythm offensively, as the team shot 7-28 (.250) from the field and 0-9 behind the arc.

WSU was also forced into taking contested jumpers rather than attacking the lane, seeing no trips to the foul line and recording just two assists.

Meanwhile, the Ducks put on a clinic from the field, hitting 15-21 (.714) shots that featured an impressive display of three point shooting.

With the Cougs attempting to double team UO senior forward and the nation’s leading rebounder Jillian Alleyne, it left the Ducks’ snippers open from deep. UO went 6-10 (.600) on three point shots and ran the Cougs into the locker room with a 39-14 lead at the half.

“I thought there was nothing that they did that wasn’t in the scout, or what we’d seen,” Daugherty said. “We were not aggressive about attacking the press and because of that, it made it tough for us to get any sort of rhythm, anything we get on offense wasn’t there.”

Alleyne, who entered the contest averaging 18 points per game and 13 rebounds per game and is the Pac-12 record holder for most rebounds recorded, had an efficient night at the expense of the WSU post players.

Her 25 points (10-13) and 14 boards were also helped by missed rotations by the Cougs that put her up against WSU guards rather than forwards.

“Jill is a great player,” Senior forward Mariah Cooks said. “I admire her game, respect her game. I think we started worrying about helping and we were dropping too much on the weak side when all we had to do was do our job and it would have taken care of itself.”

The two teams played even basketball in the second half, each scoring 31 points and WSU made an 8-2 run to end the third frame to put the score at 57-37 in the Ducks favor heading into the fourth quarter.

UO freshman guard Maite Cazorla knocked down four of the Ducks five three pointers in the third quarter to maintain their edge. WSU freshman forward and leading scorer Borislava Hristova, who was held to four points in the first half, scored nine in the third period to help the team outscore UO 23-16.

Hristova finished the game with 19 to lead the team in scoring. She and Cooks, who was the team’s second-highest scorer with seven points, combined for 14 of the team’s 23 third quarter points.

With Daugherty putting her reserves in the game and the Ducks still riding Alleyne to eight of her 25 points, nothing much changed in the fourth quarter. UO shot 5-8 from the floor to tally 16 points whereas WSU went 5-19 with 11 points.

It was an effective microcosm of how the game went offensively for both teams. The Cougs shot 22 more times than UO, but the Ducks made more of their possessions. WSU finished the game 20-64 (.313) and 3-22 (.136) from three while UO shot 25-42 (.595) and hit 12 of 20 (.600) three point shots.

Oregon State

After leading the ninth-ranked team in the nation 34-28 at the end of the third quarter, the Beavers offense awoke for 26 fourth quarter points and the Cougs were unable buy a basket down the stretch, shooting 2-8 in the game’s final 3:27 and tallying just 11 points in the frame.

Following a porous defensive effort against UO two nights prior, Daugherty mixed up her starting lineup and bench rotations in hopes of sparking the Cougs intensity level. Senior guards Alexas Williamson and Taylor Edmondson and Cooks replaced Hristova, Brown, and sophomore guard Caila Hailey to begin the contest.

Daugherty also featured sophomore guard Pinelopi Pavlopoulou off the off the bench- who helped pressure OSU senior point guard Sydney Wiese into committing seven turnovers- to help inject passion back into the defensive effort.

“We’ve had a rough time with our starts of late and just wanted to take a different look or approach,” Daugherty said. “We went with our seniors and Maria Kostourkova and I thought that our seniors definitely responded and I thought the rest of our team responded right with them. We were as connected as I’ve ever seen us on the bench and on the floor. All 14 players were totally into the scout.”

Paced by senior center Ruth Hamblin’s six points and two blocks in the first quarter, OSU led 12-8 at the end of a frame in which both teams struggled with the other’s on-ball defense.

Neither team got anything going inside with a combined 9-33 shooting a result of forced jump shots.

A 7-2 run to begin the second period, capped off by a three point basket from the top of the key by Pavlopoulou gave the Cougs their first lead at 15-14 with 6:48 remaining and forced OSU Head Coach Scott Rueck to call a timeout.

OSU would regain a 21-19 edge before five straight points from Hristova put the Cougs in front again 24-21 and helped them take a 24-22 lead into the break.

Hristova scored all nine of her first half points in the second quarter and almost made everyone in attendance forget about Friday’s debacle against UO.

“We took Friday’s game really personal,” Cooks said. “It was like a heart check. All 14 of us know that this team has more heart than anyone, so for us not to display that, we were disappointed. So going into practice yesterday, going into this game, we knew that we were going to take it up another notch on the defensive end.”

The Beavs came out in the third quarter refocused and rattled off a quick six-two run behind two buckets from Hamblin to regain the lead 28-25 just 1:34 into the frame. They would not score again in the quarter however, being held scoreless for the final 8:34 of the period.

Seven points from Hristova, including a three point bucket that tied the score back up at 28 guided an offensive effort that was good enough to stay in front of a lengthy and pressing OSU defense to take WSU into the fourth quarter up 34-28. OSU was just 3-15 from the field in the frame with an 0-10 stretch mixed in.

The fourth quarter proved to be an offensive awakening for the ninth-ranked Beavers that paired with WSU’s struggles to convert inside the paint against Hamblin and OSU’s posts.

Clinging to a 40-39 lead with 5:38 remaining, a three point basket from senior guard Jamie Weisner put the Beavers in front for good at 42-40.

Wiese, who struggled all game long, erupted for 13 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter that included a 3-5 mark from deep and two pairs of free throws that helped ice the game. Hristova’s jumper with 3:33 left put the score at 42-44 but that was as close as the Cougs would get to the Beavs the rest of the way.

Hristova, who finished with a game-high of 22 points, doubled down the stretch and other WSU shooters were unable to knock down any looks from the field and could not penetrate Hamblin or the OSU defense.

Hamblin finished the game with five blocks and seven rebounds in addition to her 17 points. OSU went a perfect six for six from the line in the last 1:25 of the game to close out an inspired WSU effort.

“Enormous respect for Oregon State and their players and obviously their coaching staff,” Daugherty said. “They’re in the top-10 in the country and we take away a lot of confidence from this. We know what we do works and we know when we play hard, anything can happen. We also know that we have to close it out. That’s the next step for us and I believe we can do that.”

WSU will have a chance to snap its six-game losing streak in Los Angeles next weekend with matchups against UCLA at 7 p.m. on Friday and then USC at 4 p.m. two days later on Sunday. Both games will be covered by the Pac-12 Networks.