Oregon sophomore point guard Kourtney Shreve played a gutsy game against the Bruins as she led the team with 11 points, despite getting knocked out with a mild concussion in the second half.
“Wooohooo!” said senior Brianne Meharry, after learning that the Ducks had won the battle for the boards and their first game in a week, a 54-43 drubbing of UCLA on Saturday.
The No. 20 Ducks (12-5 overall, 5-2 Pacific-10 Conference), averaging 32.5 rebounds per game, picked up 47 against the Bruins (compared to UCLA’s 42) and ended a two-game losing skid in front of 5,346 fans at McArthur Court.
“Let’s face it — we’re terrible rebounders,” senior forward Angelina Wolvert said. “But I think rebounding was the difference in the second half. We were able to push the fast breaks and able to run a little more than usual.”
After consecutive losses to Washington State and USC, Oregon head coach Jody Runge said Saturday’s contest against UCLA (3-15, 2-5) was a “must win.”
“This was really a game where we had to put it back together,” Runge said. “We have a tough road trip ahead [in Arizona], and it will be a tremendous challenge from where we’re at right now.”
With the victory, Oregon stayed tied with Arizona State at the top spot in the Pac-10 standings.
After missing two games with a knee injury, Wolvert came off the bench for the Ducks and tallied seven points and three rebounds in 17 minutes.
“It feels good,” said Wolvert of the sprained ligament in her left knee, which was injured Jan. 20 at Washington. “It was interesting to finally go up and down the court because I hadn’t gone on it full strength. … I’ll be fine, though.”
The bruised Ducks suffered another setback when sophomore point guard Kourtney Shreve went down with a minor concussion in the second half.
Despite the elbow to the head, Shreve led the Ducks with 11 points and four steals.
Oregon led 24-19 at the half but took a 37-21 advantage, thanks to a 13-0 run that ended at the 15:35 mark of the second period. Then, just two minutes later, the Ducks ran up another 13-0 run to take a commanding 52-27 lead.
“We did a good job in the first half, and our team felt like we should have been ahead,” UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said. “But in the second half, Oregon stepped it up and poured it on while we were still in the locker room for the first few minutes.”
A big key for the Ducks was shutting down Michelle Greco, the Pac-10’s leading scorer, who paced the Bruins with 17 points but shot just 6-for-29 from the field and only 2-for-12 from three-point land. Overall, the conference’s worst shooting team hit 22 percent from the floor, while the Ducks hit nearly 36 percent of their shots.
“Our defense really stepped it up in the second half, and they couldn’t get any open looks,” junior guard Jamie Craighead said.
Taking care of the ball has been a problem for Oregon recently. Following a 25-turnover performance Thursday, the Ducks handed over another 23 to UCLA on Saturday.
But the freebies were falling Saturday. After a woeful 16-for-32 performance at the free-throw line against USC, the Ducks shot 74 percent at the charity stripe (14-for-19) Saturday.
“Hopefully, we’re only going up from here,” said Meharry, who had a game-high nine rebounds while adding eight points.
“I think we’re on the right track … and tonight could be the turning point.”