Destiny Slocum And Oregon State Let No.1 Slip Away
Last week Connecticut, Oregon and Oregon State were the top three ranked women's college basketball teams in the country until things started to unravel on Thursday.
UCONN lost to Baylor snapping their 98 game home wining streak and opening the door to a Northwest team to take over the top spot.
Last Friday 2nd ranked Oregon then saw it's shot at number one tumble in a 72-66 loss at Arizona State. Also on Friday the Oregon State Beavers led by Treasure Valley star Destiny Slocum beat Arizona and with UCONN and Oregon losing, the door was wide open for the Beavers to grab the number one spot in the country with a win at Arizona State on Sunday.
Be honest, what are the chances Arizona State could beat a pair of top 5 opponents both on the same weekend? Turns out those chances were excellent!
The Sun Devils took a 13-4 lead over Oregon State after the first period and then played the final three stanza's pretty much even. Unfortunately for the Beavers, even wasn't going to cut it after fall behind by 9 and ASU won the game 55-47.
The state of Oregon, once the proud owner of two top 3 teams in women's college basketball was now the victim of a Sun Devil team on fire and now neither the Ducks nor the Beavers would be headed to the top of the class.
Slocum managed 13 points against ASU Sunday tying for the Beavers leading scorer but the loss, first of the year for OSU, now 15-1, shut the door for now on any hopes of being number one.
Of course when the dust settles both Oregon and Oregon State will realize being number one right now is not as important as it may have seemed over the weekend.
As they say, sometimes you learn more and become better from a loss. The season still has plenty of stories to unfold in the regular season and the PAC-12 Tournament and then there's the Dance, the NCAA Tournament where the last team standing is truly the Number 1 team in the country.