Civil War settled with third battle.

Byline: BOB RODMAN The Register-Guard

Sometimes it flat does not matter whether you deserved to win. That you won was enough.

Say hello to the Oregon women's basketball team, which shot so poorly it could hardly hit McArthur Court from inside the old building but still surfaced from Sunday's Civil War/Women's National Invitation Tournament second-round game with a 50-48 victory.

Oregon advances to a quarterfinal game against Washington on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Seattle. It will be the season's fourth meeting between Oregon and the Huskies, who defeated USC on Sunday, 97-87.

The Ducks (19-13) moved deeper into a postseason tournament than they have been since winning the WNIT's predecessor - the Women's National Invitational Tournament - in 1989. The game against Washington will be a single-season, school-record 33 for Oregon.

"The older players are trying to leave a little legacy," said Bev Smith, the famed former UO player in the first season of coaching her alma mater, "and the young ones are trying to make a little bit of history.

"They're all still hungry," she said.

For the longest time, however, the Ducks seemed bent on dining on an empty plate. They couldn't shoot straight and the majority of the crowd of 3,140 was painfully aware of it.

"So we relied on defense," said Oregon's Cathrine Kraayeveld, who snagged teammate Alyssa Fredrick's missed shot and scored the game-winner with 4.4 seconds left.

The play to get the lead in those final seconds began when Edniesha Curry pierced the OSU defense and missed her attempt at scoring but watched as the ball landed in Fredrick's hands. The rest was Civil War history.

"The ball just came to me," said Kraayeveld, who delivered an unobstructed layup. "The Beavers were just standing there looking at it."

"We had a couple of chances," Smith said. "Cathrine made sure of the last one."

Kraayeveld recorded her eighth double-double of the season with 10 rebounds and a team-high 12 points. Shaquala Williams and Jamie Craighead each added 10 for the Ducks, who beat the Beavers for the second time this season and first time this season at Mac Court.

Andrea Bills, a UO freshman who had a career-high 15 rebounds, was playing with four fouls when her basket with less than two minutes to play evened the score at 48-48 for the third of three ties and set up the fourth and final lead change on Kraayeveld's shot.

Juleen Smith, a freshman, led Oregon State with 12 points. Felicia Ragland, the Pac-10 Conference's leading scorer at 20.2 points a game, was held to 11 on a 5-of-22 day from the floor.

The Ducks, saddled with 33 percent shooting from field (20-of-61) and just 9 percent from the three-point line (2-of-22), held the Beavers, whose season ended at 17-15, to their lowest single-game total since getting 46 in a loss to Utah last November.

The game was filled with flap. What good Civil War fight isn't?

Less than four minutes into the second half, a traveling call against OSU's Ragland led to a technical foul being whistled on the senior guard.

Inside the final 30 seconds of the game, Oregon State was charged with a timeout the Beavers insist they did not request.

And the final 4.4 seconds did not seem to go OSU's way, either. The Beavers inbounded the ball, dribbled across the center line and called time with what the clock said was 1.6 seconds left in the game.

Neither Bev Smith nor Oregon State coach Judy Spoelstra agreed. Smith wanted less, Spoelstra more. The officials, after consulting a television monitor, reset the clock at 1.2 seconds.

Leilani Estavan inbounded the ball to Juleen Smith, who turned from beyond the three-point line against an onrushing Craighead and let fly.

"It wasn't a really good look," the OSU guard said. "I had to change my shot in the air, but I thought it was good."

It wasn't, falling short, grazing the front of the basket's rim and falling harmlessly away.

Spoelstra called it a game of two halves. Oregon State won the first 29-19, the Ducks the second 31-19. She said that defensively, the Beavers "got a little bit tired in the second half.

"But we felt like our momentum was taken away from us in the second half by a poor officiating crew," she said, aware, too, that in the second half OSU inherited Oregon's shooting misery with a 23 percent performance (7-of-30).

"We were the better team," said Spoelstra, whose record against Oregon as the OSU coach slipped to 2-13 as the Ducks raised their current domination of the Beavers to 13 wins in the past 14 Civil War battles. "We deserved to win."

Bev Smith had another take on the game. "Sometimes you're lucky to be good but you also need to be good to be lucky," she said.

The Ducks, save for a defense that limited OSU to 29 points, were neither in the first half, shooting 27 percent (8-of-30) and 1-of-10 from the three-point line (10 percent).

A 9-2 lead 6 1/2 minutes into the game by Oregon was shoved aside by a 27-7 surge by Oregon State that gave the Beavers their largest lead of the game at 13 points, 29-16 with 1 1/2 minutes left in the half.

The Ducks' 19 first-half points equaled a season low.

"We always think we can get back into a game with defense," said Kraayeveld, unaware that prior to Sunday's win the Ducks were 4-12 in games they trailed at halftime.

This time, they did, ending OSU's win streak against Oregon at Mac Court at one (61-53 on Jan. 19).

"It's a good feeling to know they can talk all they want but they don't own Mac Court," said Craighead, who defensively dogged Ragland for the entire game.

"There's no better way to beat a Beaver than to say, `You're not going to play for the rest of the year,' ' Williams said.

Oregon Women's Basketball Game Report

NOTES ...

Win over OSU sends Ducks to quarterfinals of WNIT, the best postseason UO has had since it won the Women's NIT in 1989 ... Cathrine Kraayeveld had third double-double in past four games and eighth of season ... Andrea Bills' 15 rebounds a career high.

KEY STAT ...

Outscored 29-19 in first half, Ducks outpoint OSU 31-19 in second half to win with season-low total of 50 points for single game.

NEXT ...

Ducks advance to WNIT quarterfinals on Wednesday at 7 p.m. against Washington at Seattle.

CAPTION(S):

Oregon's Kedzie Gunderson and Edniesha Curry celebrate Sunday's WNIT victory over Oregon State. PAUL CARTER / The Register-Guard Cathrine Kraayeveld gets tangled up with Oregon State's Hollye Chapman as the two wrestle for a rebound.