Every once in awhile, something happens to a team that puts its true character to the test.
Such a thing happened to the Ducks at McArthur Court Sept. 16.
Oregon players and recruits were playing an informal pickup game when star point guard Shaquala Williams drove past her defender for the normally easy layup.
But as Williams planted her foot to jump, she tore the Anterior Cruciate Ligament in her left knee.
With the departure of backup point guard Karen Piers, it was decided that the starting point guard duty would be left to sophomore Kourtney Shreve. Shooting guard Jamie Craighead would shift to backup point guard, and point guard Alissa Edwards would play occasional minutes.
Suddenly, the Pac-10’s most experienced starting lineup was being led by one of its most inexperienced corp of point guards.
But so far, so good.
“Our guards are playing incredibly right now,” senior forward Angelina Wolvert said. “That really speaks a lot about how much they’ve grown since the beginning of the year.”
Shreve couldn’t believe her ears when she heard she would start back in September.
The young point guard from Albany knew that Williams was hurt bad, but she didn’t know the extent of the injury — until she paid a visit to head coach Jody Runge the day after the pickup game.
“She came up to me and said, ‘Are you panicked?’” Shreve said, a few days after her meeting with Runge. “I said ‘What are you talking about,’ because I didn’t know [Williams] was out, and she’s like, ‘Are you ready?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. Sure.’ And she said, ‘Well Shaq’s out, so you’re the one now.’
“I was in shock.”
Oregon, which would have been the favorite to repeat as Pac-10 champions had Williams been in the starting lineup, found itself ranked second to Stanford in the preseason picks.
But the Ducks didn’t give up.
Shreve, Edwards and Craighead have each played integral roles in leading Oregon to its current 8-3 record and No. 20 ranking. Last season at this time, the Ducks were 9-3 and ranked No. 24.
Is Oregon missing Williams’ All-American presence?
“Sometimes in some games, yeah, but we don’t really think about it when we’re playing,” Edwards said. “We’ve kind of got over it because we know she’s not coming back, so we just have to prepare for that.”

“If our sophomore guards were not playing as well as they are right now, we’d really be struggling,” Runge said. “They played very well at Oregon State and they’re really starting to grow in confidence.”
So far, Edwards’ solid defense is the biggest surprise of the season. Behind Williams, Piers and Shreve, Edwards played a scant 5.3 minutes per game last season. Now, she’s playing 23.8 minutes each contest.
“We’ve seen a lot of what Alissa Edwards can do on the defensive end,” forward Lindsey Dion said. “But I don’t think Mac Court has seen her shooting abilities and what she’s capable of doing, probably because her wrist is injured.”
The emergence of Edwards allows Craighead to take more shots. Craighead leads the team in assists with 36 and is second in scoring with 9.5 points per game.
Shreve’s transition to starting point guard hasn’t been as smooth. She has eight more turnovers than her 15 assists and she’s shooting 31.8 percent from the field, but she is fourth on the team with 12 steals.
And Shreve has pulled through when needed. She scored four points in the final 41 seconds to beat then-No. 19 North Carolina State 50-47 on Nov. 19. In Corvallis last Friday, she drained two free throws with 16.2 seconds left in the Civil War to put the game out of reach from Oregon State.
“I think we’re doing well, but there’s room for improvement, which is good,” Shreve said. “We’re learning a lot of things quickly. With us getting more minutes we’re getting used to it. When we’re in situations like this and they pressure us we know what to do, and we all calm down and get done what needs to be done.”