With Oregon’s lead down to three and a little over five minutes left in the game, Te-Hina Paopao stepped behind the arc and hoisted up a three-point attempt.
Swish.
It was a refreshing sound as the Ducks had missed Paopao’s scoring during their seven-game losing streak. She did not score over double digits during that stretch, aside from the last outing against Washington in which she had 22. With 21 points and some late-game heroics against No. 14 Arizona, Paopao was able to lead Oregon back into the win column with a 73-59 victory.
“You also see, when Te-Hina is playing well, what a different team we are,” head coach Kelly Graves said. “She hit some big, big shots tonight.”
Both teams were going into Thursday’s game with a lot at stake. While Oregon (15-13, 6-11) was trying to make a last-minute case for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, Arizona (21-7, 11-6) was trying to secure the four seed in the Pac-12 tournament.
Center Phillipina Kyei led the Ducks in rebounding with 14. Endyia Rogers also scored 18 points and hit five threes.
Oregon and Arizona traded buckets in the first quarter which separated the two by one point. The Ducks were getting a lot of open looks offensively, but the shots were not falling.
Forward Kennedy Basham led the Oregon defense to keep the game close. Basham came off the bench and made her presence felt with a block that led to a Rogers layup in transition.
In the first half, the Ducks used their defense to propel them with transition buckets like those.
Oregon went into the half with a 40-30 lead.
In the third quarter, the Ducks were able to get the lead up to as much as 16 points. It appeared as if fatigue was starting to kick in as they allowed the Wildcats to get back into the game following an 8-0 run.
After Arizona cut the deficit to one, Rogers put her head down and drove to the hoop to get the Ducks a much-needed basket. A couple of minutes later, Paopao made back-to-back threes that forced Arizona to take a timeout.
Oregon ended the game on a 12-1 run. Paopao scored 10 of its last 12 points.
As the final buzzer sounded, relief was apparent on the faces of the Ducks’ players. They got past their worst losing streak since Graves took over as coach in 2014 and they did it against one of the nation’s top programs.
“They’ve never given up, they’ve never hung their heads,” Graves said. “I knew we had a game like this in us and now I just hope this is something we can use as momentum to propel us forward at a really important time.”
Next, the Ducks will look to continue their late push to make the NCAA tournament against an Arizona State team that just picked up their first conference win of the season. They finish out the regular season at home on Saturday at 12 p.m.
