Huskies looking to bounce back after loss to USC, loss of Burt

Washington and Oregon State clash tonight in Pac-10 women's basketball at OSU's Gill Coliseum, but the game is likely to have nothing on the clashing color scheme in the bleachers.

When Washington junior forward Maggie O'Hara walks onto the court with the rest of the Huskies, she'll be cheered by her older sister, Oregon State student Katy O'Hara, and parents whose loyalties might be divided between Washington's purple and gold and the orange and black of the host Beavers.

"My dad will probably go with a Washington T-shirt and an OSU hat, or maybe the other way around," said O'Hara, whose family will travel from Boise, Idaho, for the impromptu reunion. "I think my mom will wear mostly Washington, but maybe she'll have an OSU shirt underneath."

Just as Corvallis provides an intersection for the O'Hara clan, tonight at OSU and Saturday's matchup at Oregon mark a potential crossroads for UW (12-4, 5-2 Pac-10).

Washington is coming off a 64-61 loss Saturday to USC, which ended a 12-game home winning streak and a conference-best 4-0 mark in games decided by five points or less.

It was also UW's first game without senior guard Kayla Burt, who was shocked by an internal defibrillator during Thursday's win over UCLA and subsequently announced her retirement from competitive basketball because of the threat of cardiac arrhythmia.

Burt was in the second year of a comeback that began a year and a half after she suffered cardiac arrest on Dec. 31, 2002, and had the defibrillator implanted.

Now, for the second time, Huskies coach June Daugherty must plot the rest of a season without a player who averaged nearly 20 minutes and seven points, and provided far more than the stat line showed.

"Kayla has been clutch for five years in this program," Daugherty said. "She is someone I always counted on to have on the floor in crunch time or a late-game situation, because she's so aware of the circumstances of what's going on and what her team needs to do."

Daugherty previously said that Burt's minutes would likely be picked up primarily by senior co-captain Nicole Castro and junior Cheri Craddock. On Wednesday, she said the Huskies' new-look backcourt is a work in progress, and hopes all 13 players can combine to offset Burt's absence.

The bench has been critical all season for Washington, and has outscored its opponents' reserves in 12 of 16 games. In Oregon State (7-7, 1-5), the Huskies will play a team that relies heavily on its starters. The Beavers boast three players ranked among the top five in the Pac-10 in minutes played, all at 35 or more.

In contrast, UW is led by the 27.9 minutes per game of junior guard Cameo Hicks, who also has team highs of 15.0 points and 6.1 rebounds, and by senior guard Kristen O'Neill, whose 26.1 minutes come off the bench.

"We don't have a lot of depth, and we've got a new system we're trying to learn," said LaVonda Wagner, the first-year OSU coach whose team snapped a 16-game Pac-10 losing streak at Arizona last Thursday. "They're doing the best they can with the numbers we have and the talent we have."

The Beavers do boast size, with no starter shorter than 5 feet 11, and they will start four seniors against a Washington team that starts three sophomores and two juniors.

On the other hand, UW is one of only two teams in the conference with a winning road record in Pac-10 play (2-1), and could match last season's win total with a sweep of the Oregon schools.

To do so, they'll need to rediscover the energy and shooting touch that dissipated late in Saturday's loss to USC.

The Huskies were effective in their transition attack in that game, but were able to run only sporadically while pulling down a season-low 25 rebounds. They also went scoreless over the final two minutes while missing five consecutive free throws, and finished 1 for 9 from the line in the second half.

"More of our focus has been on getting back to basics," O'Hara said. "It's about keeping intense focus. We lost that against USC."