Endiya Rogers looked rattled by the No. 7 Arizona Wildcats’ half-court trap. From 3-point range, from inside the paint, she couldn’t buy a bucket. Until the final shot of the game, she had more turnovers than field goals.
Yet, head coach Kelly Graves kept her in. He trusted her to be herself. He trusted her to handle the late-game pressure to make the right play each time the ball was in her hands.
His trust paid off.
“Endiya struggled a little bit from the field,” Graves said “But she made the final shot when it mattered and I’m really happy for her.”
Rogers seemed to be out of the play after swinging the ball to Sydney Parrish. But she wasn’t. She rose above everyone, collected Parrish’s miss, and shot an awkward fadeaway jumper. Bottom of the net.
After overcoming a 17-point deficit, Oregon women’s basketball rallied behind Te-Hina Paopao’s 24 points to win at the buzzer, 68-66.
Midway through a gauntlet of three top-10 opponents in the span of 10 days. Coming off their largest margin of victory this season against Cal last Sunday, the Ducks looked lifeless once again.
Then came the fourth quarter and an Oregon surge. Paopao and Sedona Prince and were the catalysts. The Ducks conceded the outside shot in favor of protecting their paint. Prince had two blocks, and the Ducks defense forced a pair of shot-clock violations.
On the other side of the ball, Paopao knocked down a 3 that got the crowd on its feet, adding fuel to the comeback. Then she found Prince for back-to-back 15-footers and an emphatic put-back layup, cutting the lead to two.
“[Arizona] is definitely an aggressive team but they leave that middle open,” Prince said. “We had practiced getting that easy little 15-footer. I haven’t shot in a while I was quarantine, so I’m really just glad my shots fell tonight.”
Nyara Sabally seemed to have tunnel vision. She was a cornerstone of the Ducks’ potent offense, leading the team in assists on Sunday in their 35-point win. With the Ducks facing a 14-point deficit in the third quarter and the shot-clock winding down, the Wildcats sent a double-team at Sabally her to make an errant pass.
She answered the call on the Ducks’ final offensive possession of regulation, however.
Sabally received an entry pass from Paopao on the left elbow. She asserted herself with a pound dribble, putting her defender in an awkward position. She followed with a convincing pump-fake, getting her defender in the air. Then she banked in the game-tying layup.
“She’s our best player,” Graves said. “I felt we had an advantage at her position so we isolated her and told her to ‘go get a basket and win it’ and she did.”
Although hobbled by a non-COVID illness, Paopao seemed to be the only Ducks’ ball-handler who could outsmart the Wildcats’ half-court trap. The trap helped Arizona build an 11-point lead at halftime, but it was ultimately their downfall.
“[Te-Hina] was real patient and took what the defense gave her,” Rogers said. “She was doing a good job reading what they were giving her off the high ball-screens. She was hitting some big shots down the stretch, so congrats to her.”
The Ducks’ comeback victory was a result of contributions beyond the five players that started on the court. Chanaya Pinto provided her physicality and was on the court for the entire fourth quarter and overtime. Phillipina Kyei came in at the beginning of the fourth to stop the Wildcats from controlling the offensive boards.
It was Sabally who sent it to overtime and Rogers who won the game, but this Ducks win showed no matter who’s on the court, they’re going to fight until the final buzzer.
Oregon improves to 9-5 on the season and 2-1 in the Pac-12 after registering its first victory against a ranked opponent. The Ducks host the No. 10 Connecticut Huskies at 2 p.m. PST on Monday, Jan. 17.
