Throughout the season, the Oregon women’s basketball team has shown that it can play both very bad basketball – best shown by its shocking early-season defeat to Vanguard – and very good basketball, like it exhibited in its 62-42 win over California two weeks ago.
Tomorrow, the sixth-seeded Ducks take on California again, this time in the Pacific-10 Conference tournament.
Even though Oregon goes into the tournament coming off last weekend’s 51-45 defeat to the Huskies, junior guard Kaela Chapdelaine says morale is up and the team feels like it has a legitimate chance of advancing deep into the tournament in San Jose, Calif.
“Anything’s possible, any team in the Pac-10 can beat anyone on any given day. That’s the nature of this conference,” said Chapdelaine, who leads the team with 3.5 assists per game.
“All the teams in the conference are very competitive. It’s gonna be a great game on Saturday. We’ve split with (California) throughout the season, so it’s for all the marbles, it’s a do or die situation,” she said.
The Ducks and the Bears are 1-1 versus each other this season: California won 65-56 the first time the teams clashed in January, but the Ducks avenged themselves in their next meeting.
Whichever team wins on Saturday earns bragging rights until next season, as well as advancement through to the next stage of the tournament.
“It’s kind of an interesting situation,” Oregon coach Bev Smith said. “We got a split. Both teams are feeling good about something, and feeling a little bit anxious, too.
“Cal had a great weekend last week and it looks like they’re firing on all cylinders with the close perimeter game.”
But regardless of Cal’s rhythm, Smith feels that her Ducks are hitting their stride, too.
“In our game (against Cal) here in the second half, I thought we had all cylinders firing both offensively and defensively, too,” Smith said. “I think it’s a great matchup, our players are excited, though probably a little anxious, too, and I think most people feel that it’s a close Pac-10 game that could go either way.”
A win against Cal would also give Smith, who owns a 99-81 career coaching record, her 100th career win.
Chapdelaine was unaware that her coach was on the verge of the 100-win mark.
“Bev would never tell us that, she’s very humble that way,” Chapdelaine said. “We would love to get that win for Bev, it’s important. But we want to get it more because we want to stay in the Pac-10 tournament.”
Smith also said she wasn’t all that concerned with the milestone, and that her primary objective was to win the game at hand.
“I’m not really even aware of it,” she said. “Just trying to keep my nose to the grindstone and have this team be prepared for Cal.”
The good news is that senior post Jessie Shetters is expected to play this weekend.
“Jess was good this week,” Smith said. “Her back wasn’t feeling that stiff, and I spoke to her and said ‘Jess we need you for the weekend.’ And she said ‘I’m ready.’”
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