Schwegler Sparks Win At Washington

Final Score: Oregon St. 78 Washington 73

Mollee Schwegler had a career high 15 points off the bench, including a critical 6 late in the game, to spark Oregon St. to a 78-73 win Saturday over Washington. It was the Beavers' 6th. straight win, and moved them into sole possession of third place in the Pac-12.

Oregon St. had rallied from being down 6 to the Huskies with just over 9 minutes left to a 62-60 lead with 4 minutes left on Earlysia Marchbanks' jumper with 4 minutes to go when Schwegler converted a 2 + 1 opportunity, and followed that up with a 3 pointer to extend the Beavers' lead to 6 points. Washington would never get any closer.

Schwegler and Marchbanks co-led a balanced Oregon St. effort, with 15 points apiece, and Alyssa Martin was right behind, with 13, including a pair of free throws that opened the largest lead of the game, putting the Beavers up 73-64 with 44 seconds left.

Patricia Bright and Ali Gibson both added 12 points, and Sage Indendi just missed being the 6th Beaver in double digits when she missed a free throw with 14 seconds left.

All of Oregon St.'s 6 leading scorers except Marchbanks shot better than 50%, topped by Schwegler, who hit 5 of 7 shots, including 4 of 6 from 3 point range.

The shooting sparked the Beavers to an overall 58% from the field and 56% on 3s, in the second half, and 52% and 50% on 3s for the game. Oregon St. needed the solid shooting, considering Washington shot 47% for the game, but 58% on their 3 pointers.

The Huskies also dominated the boards, claiming a 35-28 edge, including 22-5 on the Beavers' end.

Washington led by as many as 6 points 3 times in the first half, but Oregon St. caught up, forcing a 34-34 tie on Indendi's basket 5 seconds before halftime. Schwegler sank back to back 3 pointers midway in the first half to erase one of the Huskies' leads.

The Beavers opened an 8 point lead 3 1/2 minutes into the second half on a Marchbanks layin, but the Huskies responded with a 17-3 run to take a 56-50 lead with 9:18 left.

The inability to finish games strongly cost Oregon St. a number of winnable games last season, especially when faced by a strong individual performance, such as the game high 20 points posted by Washington's Jazmine Davis.

Withstanding the Washington run and pulling out a win on the road despite getting out-rebounded demonstrated the mental aspects of Oregon St.'s game have caught up with the physical ability that puts them in position to have a chance to win most nights, last year as well as this.

The 78-73 win gave Oregon St. a season sweep of Washington as well as a weekend sweep of the state of Washington. The streak of 6 consecutive conference wins is the first stretch that long in 17 years for the Beavers.

In addition to Davis, physically dominating Regina Rogers had 16 points, on 7 of 11 shooting, and Mercedes Wetmore added 12.

Oregon St. (17-1, 8-5) will host the Pac-12's top 2 teams, Stanford and California, Thursday and Saturday.

Washington (13-10, 5-8) fell into a 3 way tie for 8th. place with Colorado and Utah.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com