Peyton Scott poked the ball away from Ella Collier with 2:26 left in the first half and sprinted to the hoop from halfcourt.
Scott flipped in the layup despite being hacked by the defender on the way up. She let out a roar as the official’s whistle blew — both of which could barely be heard over the crowd’s deafening applause.
Each time Oregon (13-5, 4-3 Big Ten) started to lose its grasp on the advantage in Wednesday’s 69-53 win against Purdue (7-10, 0-6 Big Ten), the defense came up with a big stop to shift the momentum back in its favor.
“I think turnovers were the key,” head coach Kelly Graves said. “It’s really kind of funny because we’re not in the in-your-face kind of super athletic defense but we just kind of get hands on a lot of balls.”
The Ducks have recorded double-digit steals in eight of their last 11 contests. Their 11 games with 10 or more steals this season are already more than the last two seasons combined. Oregon is 9-2 in those games.
Wednesday’s matchup began sluggish and the Ducks trailed by as many as five points in the first quarter. Scott hit her first two field goal attempts but the rest of the team started 0-for-8.
A 7-0 Oregon scoring run changed that. Nani Falatea and Sofia Bell rushed to halfcourt to double-team Amiyah Reynolds. A steal resulted in a Falatea 3-pointer to tie the game at nine apiece.
The Ducks never looked back.
“Our defense ignites our offense,” Deja Kelly said. “We like to push. We like to get out and run, [so for] us to force that many turnovers — we really just stuck to our gameplan.”
Oregon forced 17 first-half turnovers, four of which occurred in its early first-quarter run. The Ducks notched 11 steals in the first half alone.
This Oregon roster wasn’t designed to be a monster defensive team. Besides Phillipina Kyei — whose 6-foot-8 frame towers over opponents — the team doesn’t have many shot blockers. The Ducks only recorded one block in the game against the Boilermakers.
Instead, Oregon’s perimeter defense has sparked its conference wins.
“We’re holding teams in the 50s and low 60s pretty consistently, forcing a lot of turnovers,” Graves said. “That’s going to do well for us, ultimately, for in the long run.”
The three-quarter court press led to six players tallying multiple steals for the Ducks on Wednesday. Meanwhile, six Boilermakers turned the ball over multiple times.
Oregon is averaging 10.3 steals per game which is currently the most since the 2013-14 season and good for fourth in the Big Ten. It is third in the Big Ten in steals per game since the start of conference action.
The Ducks still have a little over half the conference season remaining. More tough tests lie ahead, with No. 1 UCLA and No. 8 Maryland later to come at Matthew Knight Arena, but Graves iterated how crucial the current stretch is.
“This is an important week for us,” Graves said. “We got a chance to move up the standings a little bit and be more relevant in the race, so we just got to continue to take care of business at home.”