Following the Ducks’ 79-51 victory over the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos on Sunday, leading scorer Jillian Alleyne talked about the chemistry on the court that her and fellow forward Jacinta Vandenberg have developed this year.
“It’s something that just started to click once we started going in September,” Alleyne said after the game. “We’re working on perfecting our chemistry for each other, but we haven’t [yet].”
After watching Sunday’s game, it’s hard to say they haven’t yet.
Alleyne and Vandenberg combined for 29 points, 21 rebounds and 4 blocks, to help the Ducks overcome 27 turnovers to seal the win. They are now 3-0 on the season.
Alleyne led the way with 15 points and 13 rebounds — her 15th consecutive double-double — to go along with 1 block and 2 steals. Vandenberg had, arguably, the second best game of her career. She racked up 14 points, one away from her career high, and added 8 rebounds with 3 blocks.
“I’m taking baby steps,” said the 6-foot-5 Vandenberg when asked about the development of her offensive game. “As long as I take it game by game, that’s what I’m looking for.”
Head coach Kelly Graves praised the Australian-native after the game for her growth in the program.
“I was really proud of Jacinta tonight,” Graves said. “She’s got the capability to be a really good basketball player, but she defers to her passing instincts all the time. It was nice for her to look like she really wanted to shoot the ball and wanted to score.”
The starting four and five for the Ducks looked in rhythm for almost the whole game, feeding off each other each post on high-lows, something they’ve been working on a lot in practice.
“We’re learning to work with each other — what’s our favorite post-up position, what’s not,” Alleyne said. “Just learning to counteract each other.”
“I’m telling you, they’re going to continue to get better and better,” Graves said when asked about how the two front court mates played off each other. “They made some questionable passes, but they’re starting to play really well together in stretches and hopefully we can make that a little more consistent.”
“Questionable passes” was a pretty good way to sum up Oregon’s passing throughout the game.
The Ducks turned the ball over 27 times in the game, 15 of which came in the first half when the two teams combined for 28 total.
“I was just really disappointed with the turnovers,” Coach Kelly Graves after the game. “Not really our nature. I don’t know what happened, but once you get on your heels — and they put us on our heels — we just struggled to keep our composure. It kind of went through the lineup.”
Although the Ducks did turn the ball over a season high amount of times today, their defense against the Gauchos more than made up for it as they held Santa Barbara to 31 percent shooting for the game and forced 21 turnovers of their own.
The offense clicked, as well. The Ducks shot a scorching 57.4 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range. They never trailed in the game.
The Ducks will need to ride the play of future WNBA player Alleyne and her talented front court partner Vandenberg in order to win a loaded Pac-12 conference this season.
The Ducks take on the Clemson Tigers next at home on Tuesday. Tip-off is at 6pm.
Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @g_amorris