The Oregon women’s basketball team continues Pacific-10 Conference play this week as they travel south to face Arizona and No. 15 Arizona State. The Ducks tip off against the Sun Devils tonight at 5:30 p.m., hoping to bounce back after Saturday’s home loss to No. 14 Stanford.
Like Oregon (10-4 overall, 1-3 Pac-10),
Arizona State comes into this game on the heels of a loss. Last weekend, the Sun Devils (12-3, 3-2) were swept out of Los Angeles and the top 10 after losing to USC Friday and UCLA Sunday. The Sun Devils turned the ball over a combined 51 times during the weekend.
Arizona State’s front-court has helped it hold the Pac-10’s best overall record going into this week. Its 47 percent field-goal percentage tops the conference standings, as does its 288 assists. Senior Kristin Kovedsy is the Sun Devils most accurate shooter. The 6-foot-3 forward from Scottsdale, Ariz. leads the conference in shooting, converting 59 percent from the field. Kovedsy led Arizona State with a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds against the Bruins. She is also sixth in the conference in rebounds (104) and averages almost seven boards per game.
Playing alongside Kovedsy in the post is Emily Westerberg. The junior forward is second in the team in scoring with 163 points. Westerberg is not shy about shooting three-pointers. She has made 7 of 18 from beyond the arc this season.
Having lost three of its last four conference games, and winless in Arizona since 2000, Oregon has a chance today to keep its Pac-10 title hopes alive and give coach Bev Smith her first Pac-10 win in the desert. Following
Oregon’s loss to Stanford on Saturday, Smith looked ahead to the team’s road trip this week with optimism.
“Last year we did a great job of defending home court, and I don’t think losing to Stanford on our home court is going to make or break our season,” Smith said. “I still think we have a great chance to defend up here and make that happen. Obviously we really want to right that win-loss column. Looking down the road now at Arizona State and Arizona, it’ll be good for us to get on the road and get a couple wins or at least get a split.”
Although wins in Arizona have been hard to come by for Oregon as of late, Chelsea Wagner of the Ducks feels they can win this weekend if the team plays smart and to the level of its opponent.
“When we go down to Arizona, we’ve had a hard time,” Wagner said. “We are just going to have to play smart basketball against them because they are playing a little bit smarter basketball, a little bit more up-tempo basketball. So we are going to have to adjust to that.”
Wagner’s three-point shot has helped keep Oregon in many games this season. Her three-point shooting percentage of .500 is best in the conference, and the senior guard led the Ducks against Stanford with 15 points.
Sophomore Gabrielle Richards leads Oregon in scoring. The 6-foot-3 center from Seymour, Australia has 168 points this season and is averaging a team-best 4.9 field goals made per game.
Going into this week, defending Pac-10 Champion Stanford sits alone in first place followed by Washington and four two-loss teams. Senior guard Kedzie Gunderson believes that she and the Ducks are still in the hunt for a conference title.
“Everyone’s got a chance. We can’t look at it and say ‘oh shoot, we’re 1-3,’” Gunderson said. “We have a lot more opportunities to go and so much can happen. You kind of just let that go and each game you have to prepare and go ‘hey, we’ve got to get another win right here.’”
Oregon’s game against Arizona Saturday starts at 11 a.m. and will be aired live on Fox Sports Net. The Ducks return home next week to host Washington State on Thursday and Washington on Saturday.
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