Cougar women’s basketball (14-13, 8-7) takes on the Oregon Ducks (13-13, 4-11) Sunday at 1 p.m from Beasley Coliseum. Washington State will be looking to capture its 15th victory of the season, and guarantee the program its first .500 regular season finish since 1995-96. It also would clinch the program’s first regular season .500 finish in conference play since the 1994-95 season.
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The Oregon Ducks are coached by Paul Westhead, and his style of play is based on a fast-pace and up-tempo offense that aims to build a massive lead by taking (and hopefully making) a lot of 3-pointers. In fact, the Ducks lead the conference in 3-point attempts with 828 – the Cougs have taken the second most 3-point shots with 501.
The first time these two squads met (back on Jan. 24), the Ducks offense continued to bomb away from 3-point land – Oregon shot a total of 32 three pointers, but only hit seven. Despite the fact that the Ducks took, and missed, so many 3s, Oregon was able to score 60 of the team’s 82 points from inside the arc. Oregon’s biggest offensive advantage during the first match-up was rebounding, as they out-rebounded WSU 59-35.
In this second match-up, the Cougars are going to have to limit the number of rebounds that Oregon corrals. The Cougar offense is able to keep pace with anyone, but it is hard for the offense to score points when the other team constantly has possession of the basketball. And post play has been something that the Cougars have struggled with during their last three home games.
Oregon’s offensive attack is led by forward Jillian Alleyne and guard Chrisae Rowe – they average 21.5 and 22.1 points per game respectively. In the first match up, Rowe and Alleyne accounted for 45 of the Ducks’ 82 points and 25 of the Ducks’s 59 rebounds.
The Cougars are going to need to contain the damage that Rowe and Alleyne are able to do offensively if they are going to pick up the win/
Offensively for the Cougs, they are going to try and find a way to get Tia Presley open. In the game against the Beavers on Friday night, Presley was a non-factor in the 67-53 loss – she was also a non-factor in the Cougs previous loss to the Ducks. The Cougs are also going to continue to work on a balanced offensive attack and take the attention off of the two shooting guards -- Galdeira and Presley.
Washington State is honoring three seniors today--Hana Potter (No. 42), Sage Romberg (No. 22), and Brandi Thomas (No. 24)--in the team’s final regular season home game. This may not be the end of the road for at least one of them--Romberg has received an invitation to the WNBA combine in Nashville.