Lexi Petersen had 15 second-half points and Jillian Alleyne finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds as Oregon beat Clemson 69-56 on Tuesday night, moving to 4-0 on the season.
The start is the program’s best since Oregon started the 2011-2012 season 6-0. All told, Petersen finished with 20 total points — 10 of which came in the fourth quarter — and Lexi Bando added 13 points on 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point range.
Clemson (1-4) pulled to within six points (48-42) in the fourth quarter before Oregon went on a 9-2 run to pull away.
“All together as a team, we really just really wanted that game,” Petersen said. “We wanted to come out with the win, so I tried to do whatever I could.”
Oregon shot 49 percent from the field, including 63 percent in the second half to. The Ducks won the points-off-turnovers battle (16-6).
“I give Clemson a lot of credit,” head coach Kelly Graves said. “I thought by far they played their best game tonight. Maybe we had something to do with that.”
Alleyne recorded her 20th career double-double, which is one shy of her UO and Pac-12 career records she set last season.
After a consecutive Oregon turnovers to start the second period, the Ducks went on a 14-2 run, powered by consecutive 3-pointers from Kat Cooper, Maite Cazorla, who had five points and five assists in 37 minutes, and Petersen. The run gave the Ducks a 33-19 lead, which they maintained for a 33-24 advantage heading into intermission.
“I thought early in the game we had really good looks,” Graves said. “We kind of were getting what we wanted to. We kind of stubbed our toe a little bit with some untimely turnovers and we didn’t shoot the free-throws very well, which kind of hurt. Offensively, we had a balanced evening.”
The Ducks finished 13-of-23 from the free-throw line, good for 57 percent.
At the end of three quarters, the Ducks held a 48-39 lead. Lexi Petersen hit a bucket that stopped a nearly four-minute scoring drought with 53.6 seconds left in the third.
“I think there’s a lot we can take from this game,” Petersen said. “This was the most athletic, biggest and strongest team we played so far. I think it’ll be good for us in the future.”
In the fourth, the Tigers closed to within six (48-42) before an Alleyne bucket jumpstarted a run to push Oregon’s lead back to double digits (57-43). The Ducks found their largest lead, 69-54, with 1:04 left to play.
“It came down to just a few possessions, and that’s great,” Graves said. “We made the plays we needed to win.”
Clemson’s Danielle Edwards led the Tigers with a career-high 23 points on 11-of-17 shooting from the floor. Nelly Perry finished with 16 points.
Graves said the Ducks will travel to Clemson next year as part of a home-and-home series with the Tigers.
Oregon hosts North Dakota on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne