The Oregon Ducks (11-18, 2-14 Pac-12) failed to end their losing streak in a 71-61 loss to the Washington State Cougars (17-12, 6-10 Pac-12). With the loss, the Ducks have now fallen short of a win in 11 straight games, putting them firmly at the bottom of the conference with only a few games to go before the Pac-12 Tournament.
With a collection of losses like the ones Oregon has compiled recently, there is an increasingly small amount of places to look to find signs of optimism. This game was no exception to that.
Despite a second straight massive game from Kennedy Basham, where she scored 14 points, the Ducks failed to get normal production numbers from Chance Gray. Gray had just five points on 2-17 shooting from the field. Her struggles tapered what could have been a strong showing from Oregon if she had been able to find her usual level of success.
However, Gray’s running mates in the Ducks’ big three, Phillipina Kyei and Grace VanSlooten, both had productive games in the loss. Kyei had a career-high 23 points in addition to 15 rebounds in the game and VanSlooten added 16 points of her own. In addition to Basham’s 14, generally numbers like that mean an Oregon win. Unfortunately for the Ducks, this season seems to have a lot more should win games than actual wins.
A concerning trend that has begun to appear in the last couple games is the lack of bench production. Oregon has suffered injuries to a couple of day one starters and has been forced into a shorter rotation as a result. Despite that, the incredibly low bench contributions have still jumped out. After the Ducks got no points, and no shots, from their bench in the loss against the Washington Huskies, this game marked the second straight game with a scoreless second unit. This time the bench took just one shot, the only shot from the group in the last two games.
Just one made 3-pointer from Oregon, with that coming from Ula Chamberlin, as opposed to seven made 3-pointers from the Cougars generally spells doom for this poor-shooting Ducks team. This game was another example of these shooting woes. Gray missed all six of her attempts from deep. On the other end, Washington State’s Astera Tuhina made four of her five attempts from behind the arc on her way to a career-high 24 points. With Oregon unable to limit opposing 3-pointers, and not being able to make any of its own, attempting to win games with that formula is always a tall order.
The lack of shooting, and inability to slow down their opposition, makes the Ducks an easy team to game plan for. Even with the pair of breakout games from Basham helping Oregon get a jump on Washington and Washington State, the overreliance on the big three has caused a lot of problems for the Ducks throughout the season. When one of them is not having a good game, like Gray was not on Sunday, Oregon finds it very hard to come away with a win.
This season for the Ducks is likely going to be one that they will want to forget going forward. With too many holes on the roster as currently constructed, and a wealth of injuries to starters, it is tough to evaluate this team as it heads into the off-season. Keeping its players from leaving via the transfer portal will likely be a major priority for Oregon, and this season has shown that if the Ducks can supplement their key pieces with some more contributors, that they have the bones of a good team. However, whether or not that vision ever becomes fully realized remains to be seen.
Oregon heads into its final week of the regular season with a game against the Cal Golden Bears on Thursday, Feb. 29 at 7:00 p.m.
