The Oregon women’s basketball team (4-1 overall) closes out fall term tonight with a match against St. Mary’s (Calif.) at 7 p.m. at McArthur Court.
The Ducks go into tonight’s game coming off an easy 73-46 win over University of Portland on Tuesday night.
Against the Pilots, Oregon went into half time with an intimidating 42-19 lead. The Ducks extended that lead even further in the second half, pulling away to a 62-35 lead with just under 11 minutes remaining. At that point, the game was just about over, and Oregon coach Bev Smith began pulling her starters out and letting the bench take over.
Oregon has won every game this season in which it has led going into the half, and it’s becoming clear that the Ducks are a team that needs to start out strong.
“I think it’s all about getting a good aggressive start for us and to get out there and get ahead early,” senior forward Carolyn Ganes said. “For us it’s just all about being really aggressive, and like Bev says, getting in the first punch instead of reacting to what the other team is gonna do to us.”
Still in the first leg of the season, the Ducks have struggled to find consistency.
“We’re still trying to come together and we know that we’re not too consistent right now, but I think this is a good opportunity for us to put two solid games together,” Ganes said. “We’ve got one under our belt now, we just need to come out aggressive.”
Ganes and the rest of the Oregon bench have contributed significantly to the team’s offensive production this season. The Ducks’ bench has accounted for 159 points in five games so far, while the starting five has 140 points among them.
Ganes has 59 points on the season, most of which came from a 23-point performance against UC Santa Barbara, and an 18-point contribution in the Ducks’ second-half comeback win against the University of Utah in the Oregon Thanksgiving Tournament.
Freshman guard Taylor Lilley also poured in the points for Oregon in two games over the Ducks’ opening weekend in California. Lilley currently has 57 points, 27 of which came against UC Santa Barbara.
Senior forward Jamie Hawkins, another key reserve, also has 24 points on the season.
” It’s the bench’s job to come in and try to carry that momentum,” Ganes said. “I think we’re really fortunate to have a deep team where any one person can come off the bench, and we don’t lose a lot of momentum, we don’t lose a lot of skill. I think that can be a big strength for our team.”
With only 11 players on their active roster, the Ducks have an unusually small team this year but Ganes thinks that what Oregon lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality.
” We’re not big in numbers, but as far as the players that we have, we don’t lose a lot by subbing,” she said.
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