Getting an early lead often sets the tone in basketball, and that held true tonight as the Michigan State University women’s basketball team fell short in a 63-59 loss to the University of Oregon after struggling to recover from an early deficit.
Unranked and sitting eighth in the Big Ten, the Ducks controlled the game throughout, fending off a late surge by MSU. Graduate guard Deja Kelly led the way with 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
The Spartans struggled offensively and defensively, looking unlike their usual form as they allowed the Ducks to dominate in the paint, scoring 30 points inside.
The loss was the first for the No. 16 Spartans at home on the season.
Oregon seized momentum from the tip-off and maintained it through the first quarter, holding the Spartans scoreless until the 6:57 mark with stifling interior defense that disrupted MSU’s offense.
Senior center Phillipina Kyei fueled Oregon's strong start, consistently creating mismatches with her 6-foot-8 frame. While she finished with limited points, her inside presence forced the Spartans to shift their defensive focus.
"(Kyei) is a pretty unique matchup," Fralick said. "Earlier, we were trying to get some help on her, but her help was late, and when your help’s late then everybody’s open. If our helps early, I think we can look a little different in that."
The second half was a back-and-forth battle, with the Spartans struggling to find their rhythm in the third quarter. Junior forward Grace VanSlooten began to take over for the Spartans out of the half, scoring eight in the third quarter, but every time MSU began to go on a run, Oregon followed suit with one of their own.
Much of the third quarter was defined by long possessions, as the Ducks forced the Spartans to drain the shot clock to the final seconds before throwing up contested shots. Also not helping the cause was a technical foul called on Robyn Fralick midway through the quarter.
The momentum of the second half faced a complete turnaround in the fourth quarter, however. Coming out of an inconsistent third, the Spartans rallied on to a 10-1 scoring run, highlighted by back-to-back and-one layups by graduate forward Julia Ayrault and junior guard Theryn Hallock.
MSU outscored the Ducks 19-8 in the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit to three at one point, but it was too deep to overcome. Although having a resilient comeback effort, returning from an 18-point lead is still a war of a task.
"We had a slow start, which in a league as good as ours, it’s kind of hard to bounce back and get back in games when you have slow starts like that," Graduate guard Nyla Hampton said. "But it was really mostly on us. Our player movement wasn’t really there. Our ball movement wasn’t there."
Michigan State was led by Ayrault, who tallied 14 points with nine rebounds. Two other Spartans also reached double-figures in Theryn Hallock (12) and Grace VanSlooten (14). Defensively, Hampton headed the effort, with six steals on the night.
Fralick saw the effort as a learning curve for her squad, looking to build off of the devastating loss.
"I just think we will show up tomorrow and we’ll learn. There’s a lot to learn from this game, all 40 minutes of it," Fralick said.
MSU, now 17-4 overall and 7-3 in conference play, will look to bounce back Sunday, Feb. 2, against Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois.
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