On Friday night in Eugene, Oregon women's basketball pulled away from Oregon State and tightened its grip on the Pac-12. On Monday night in Corvallis, Oregon State got revenge and ended Oregon's 17-game winning streak in the process.
The No. 12 Beavers held off Sabrina Ionescu and the No. 2 Ducks, who earlier on Monday received their highest AP Poll ranking in program history, for a 67-62 in front of a sold-out crowd.
Oregon State locked down the Ducks' vaunted offense for much of the game. Ionescu, the Ducks' star and a national player of the year contender, needed 25 shots to get 21 points. Oregon State held Oregon to its lowest-scoring quarter and lowest-scoring half of the season, and the Ducks shot only 34.8 percent for the game.
OSU guards Aleah Goodman and Destiny Slocum were too much for Oregon for most of the night. Goodman had 22 points and Slocum had 20, and they did so shooting an efficient 14-for-27 from the field.
FUN WHILE IT LASTED: Oregon's never been ranked this high
After only shooting 38 percent from the field in the first half, Oregon caught back up after the Ducks finally got some shots to fall. They didn't get even until Ionescu hit a step-back jumper with 1:40 left in the third quarter to make it 45-45. Oregon later took the lead, 52-50, but Oregon State then scored the next seven points. Later, with Oregon State up 65-62 in the final seconds, Goodman ran at Ionescu and forced a travel that iced the game.
Oregon hadn't beat Oregon State in Corvallis since 2010. That streak lives on.
Notre Dame let NC State hang around for a half. Then the Irish exploded.
In Monday night's first matchup of ranked teams, No. 5 Notre Dame only led No. 9 NC State by five points at halftime at the Wolfpack's annual Play4Kay game in Raleigh, named for late Hall of Fame coach Kay Yow.
Elissa Cunane kept NC State in it with with 28 points in front of her home crowd, including 16 in the first half, but NC State never led. Arike Ogunbowale announced her presence with this incredible assist on a pass going out of bounds.
In case you were wondering who is in the running for national player of the year 😱
— Maria Taylor (@MariaTaylor)
Then Notre Dame turned the throttle up for a 34-point third quarter to put the game out of reach.
The Irish were efficient and unrelenting. Their stars poured on the points and did so quickly. Ogunbowale finished with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, while Marina Mabrey had 21 and Jessica Shepard had 18 points to go along with 13 rebounds. Notre Dame shot 53 percent from the field and outrebounded NC State by an astounding 45-28 margin, including 16-6 on the offensive glass. And when the Irish put pressure on NC State in transition, they succeeded. Notre Dame scored 37 fast-break points, while NC State had just two.
STATS AND STANDINGS: Scoreboard | Standings
The defending national champs dusted the No. 9 team on the road in front of an emotional, packed crowd. Pretty good. The Irish are 24-3, with a date at No. 18 Syracuse the biggest challenge left in their three remaining games.
