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MSU Women's Basketball Overcomes Early Deficit, Upsets No. 3 Ranked Oregon

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Center Jenna Allen celebrates following a made shot Sunday.

The Michigan State Spartans (8-1) got a huge lift from the team’s lone senior on Sunday afternoon as center Jenna Allen scored 27 points in an 88-82 upset victory over the Oregon Ducks (7-1).

 

Teams often look to their oldest players in big moments. And as Allen nailed an and-one three pointer near the end of the second quarter to give the Spartans a lead they would never relinquish, it was evident the senior knew what needed to be done.

 

Allen, who is the leading scorer of an MSU team that has one loss, only missed three shots in what was the best game of her career in probably the biggest moment thus far in her four-year career.

 

“I worked on my 3-point shot all summer, and seniors step up,” Allen said after the game.

 

Junior guard Taryn McCutcheon also had 14 huge points to go with eight assists.

 

The Ducks explosive offense came into the game averaging nearly 95 points a content. Oregon was led by All-American guard Sabrina Ionescu, who scored 29 points, and Erin Boley who had 24 points.

 

Oregon jumped out to an early 16-4 lead before MSU battled back. The Spartans took the lead for the fist time 39-37 with just under three minutes to play in the second quarter and never looked back as they rattled off  a 17-2 run to end the half.

 

“Obviously this is a huge win for us,” said coach Suzy Merchant. “I felt like our schedule had prepared us to play these guys. We scrimmaged Notre Dame, we played N.C. State. So, we had played that level of competition in the non-conference coming into this non-conference game.”

 

MSU now holds an 8-1 record with their only loss coming in a 78-74 neutral site game against No. 10 N.C. State. Oregon had won nearly all its games by double-digits except for a two-point comeback win over No. 18 Syracuse.

 

MSU matches up next with Hartford on the road on Sunday, December 16th at 2:00 p.m.

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