Rams suffer loss from Ducks

The Rose Garden was anything but sweet to the 3-3 CSU Rams

women’s basketball team as the arena sprouted another loss at the

hands of No. 20 Oregon in Portland.

The Ducks (6-1) played their first game without leading scorer

Cathrine Kraayeveld, who averages 17.2 points a game, but teammates

Andrea Bills and Carolyn Ganes picked up the slack.

Bills had 17 points and eight rebounds, while Ganes added 16 in

the 62-50 win over the Rams. However, the win wasn’t an easy one,

as the Rams played tough and never backed down. When the teams

emerged from the locker room for the beginning of the second half

the Rams trailed 23-28, but they erased quickly by scoring the

first five points of the second half to tie the game.

From that point each team took turns in scoring baskets, and the

lead went from team to team until Joy Jenkins hit a 3-pointer with

six minutes left in the half. That basket gave the Rams a 46-45

lead, their last of the game.

“We were looking to pick up the tempo in the second half and we

were able to get up the court,” said Oregon’s Corrie Mizusawa, the

Pac-10’s assist leader, at a press conference.

Mizusawa had six points and led all players with seven

assists.

“We hit our free throws and made defensive stops and that is

what wins games,” Mizusawa said.

Defense was the factor that won this game. After the Rams

scratched their way back into the contest, Oregon went on a 9-2 run

to close out the game.

“In crunch time, I thought we played smart defensively,” Oregon

coach Bev Smith said in a release.

The last points scored by the Rams were two free throws from

Lindsay Thomas with 3:39 left in the second half. Thomas had eight

points and 14 rebounds in the contest, but was just 2-of-10 from

the field. Sophomore Melissa Dennett led the Rams’ scoring attack

with 14 points. Fellow sophomore Vanessa Espinoza had 10 points of

her own and was the only other Ram to score double digits.

The Rams shot 29 percent as a team from the field while Oregon

shot 36.2 percent and outrebounded the Rams 46-41.

“We got the defensive rebounds and once we got that defensive

board, we were able to run,” Smith said. “We practiced yesterday

the way we played today.”

For the Rams the road trips are not over. They will take on the

University of Denver Thursday at Magnus Arena in Denver, where they

hope to end their three-game losing skid.