Chelsea Wagner played without a brace on her surgically repaired left knee for the first time Thursday night, unleashing fury on Arizona and making an Oregon women’s basketball record-tying eight three-pointers in the Ducks’ 78-58 win.
Oregon (14-9, 5-8 Pac-10) took advantage of Arizona’s lack of depth, playing a Wildcats team with only seven available players; three were out with concussions.
When Arizona (7-17 overall, 3-11 Pacific-10 Conference) beat Oregon 81-72 in overtime last month, the Wildcats used a full-court press to fluster Oregon.
Arizona played zone Thursday, and Oregon responded with a team-record 15 three-pointers on 55.6 percent shooting. Oregon broke the previous record of 13 set in 2002 at TCU.
Wagner had 24 points on eight of 11 three-point shoots before a crowd of 3,213 at McArthur Court.
“She’s on fire, and it becomes contagious,” Arizona coach Joan Bonvincini said.
“Everyone’s hitting threes.”
Oregon forwards Kedzie Gunderson and Kaela Chapdelaine each scored 10 points and made two three-pointers each. Brandi Davis scored eight points with two three-pointers.
Oregon’s advantage outside created openings for its posts to find the perimeter shooters. Eleanor Haring dished out five assists and Gabrielle Richards had three.
“We have the ability to shoot the ball from the outside, it’s just trying to get synchronicity with the inside-outside game and I think (Thursday) we did a great job of that,” Oregon coach Bev Smith said.
Point guard Tamika Nurse scored eight points with three assists. She played a career-high 34 minutes with five points and four assists last month in Tucson, Ariz., against the Wildcats.
Arizona, relying on Natalie Jones (17 points), Ashley Whisonant (16 points) and Joy Hollingsworth (14 points), trailed 39-30 at halftime, and was unable to get closer than 14 after the first four minutes of the second half.
“Chelsea and a lot of their players are such good shooters, and so what you want to do is … put a lot of pressure on them and force them into a full court game,” Bonvincini said. “But we couldn’t do that.”
Wagner, whose final three-pointer gave Oregon a 74-52 lead with 4:40 remaining, chose to not wear the brace after meeting with her doctor.
Wagner originally expected to wait through Valentine’s day, but she said she got better lift on her shot and ability to get to the basket without the knee brace. She said the knee is strong and tendinitis is the only problem.
Her performance Thursday came after going scoreless against Stanford and scoring 11 points on 4 of 10 shots against California last weekend.
“She looks so strong right now,” Smith said.
Tying Jessica Schutt’s eight three-pointers against Hawaii in 1993, Wagner moved into seventh place on the single-season three-pointers list with 51.
“I don’t usually get a lot of open looks like that, so it was kinda of fun for me,” Wagner said.
Oregon moved into sole possession of seventh place after Oregon State lost 77-67 Thursday to No. 16 Arizona State.
The Arizona State team Oregon will play Sunday afternoon is playing better than the one Oregon faced in January in Tempe, Ariz. The Sun Devils are riding a five-game winning streak.
Forward Emily Westerberg has provided the boost Arizona State needed, scoring a career-high tying 26 points and making nine field goals in the Sun Devils’ 79-72 win over USC last week.
During the four-game stretch prior to Thursday night, Westerberg averaged 12.3 points per game and shot 57.1 percent from the field.
Kristen Kovesdy leads Arizona State in scoring with 12.7 per game and 6.8 rebounds per game.
Oregon players may remember Aubree Johnson, who though only averaging 5.7 points and 4.5 rebounds a game, had 11 rebounds and snatched a crucial rebound in Arizona State’s first win against the Ducks.
Johnson snagged the rebound with less than 20 seconds left and passed to Westerberg for the go-ahead three-pointer in the 44-43 win.
“We haven’t forgotten that we lost by one point down there,” Wagner said. “We have not forgot that at all.”
 

 
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