The Washington women’s basketball team was desperate for a win.

The Huskies (5-18, 1-12 Pac-10) stumbled into their game against Oregon Saturday with a school-record 11-game losing streak, but wasted another chance to break that skid with a 77-69 loss to the Ducks (9-15, 5-8 Pac-10) in Eugene, Ore.

“The kids are extremely wounded right now, and it’s my job and that of my staff to keep these kids believing,” UW head coach Tia Jackson told radio station 1150 KKNW.

The pivotal moment in the loss came with 1:47 remaining in the game when the Huskies were trailing 64-60. Despite having only two team fouls in the half, Jackson elected to begin the foul-fest and the Huskies pulled off five personal fouls in five seconds to push the Ducks into the bonus.

“I looked up, I saw five, I thought we had one more [foul] to give, we’re going to go ahead and give that last foul,” Jackson said. “That was not the case, it was five on their side and six on our side … we should have [gotten] a defensive stop there, came down and scored.”

The Ducks ended up making 12 of 15 free throws to put the game away.

“As a coach, I’ll take that hit and apologize to the team,” Jackson said of the decision to foul.

For the most part, the game was tight. Prior to the desperation fouls, the Huskies and Ducks were tied at 58 with 5:22 to go before Oregon guard Micaela Cocks knocked down two 3-pointers to push the Ducks in front 64-58.

“Micaela Cocks got pretty hot, we did not have a keen eye on her like we should have and she just kept nailing them,” Jackson said.

Washington guard Sami Whitcomb played a key role in keeping her team competitive against the Ducks.

“She’s adjusting to her role out there on the floor as a scorer,” Jackson said of Whitcomb. “She wants to be that scorer.”

Once again, Whitcomb had a huge scoring night. Her 26 points — 16 of them in the first half, including the first nine of UW’s points — led all scorers and helped push the Huskies into unfamiliar 10-point and nine-point leads.

But like many times this season, the UW leads were soon cut. By halftime, the Ducks only trailed by three, thanks to an 8-1 run to end the half.

“My heart goes out to this team because they worked so hard and deserved this win today,” Jackson said.

The Huskies host UCLA and USC this weekend, still seeking only their second Pac-10 win of the season.

Reach reporter Honsen Lin at sports@dailyuw.com.