Test is the buzz word for the Oregon women’s basketball team.
Marquette offers that tonight with a visit to McArthur Court. Oregon failed its first exam – a 67-60 loss to South Dakota State – and has this last home game until Pacific-10 Conference play starts in January.
The game, set for 7 p.m., offers a showcase for Marquette’s high-scoring offense. The Golden Eagles are scoring 74.5 points a game and are led by Krystal Ellis, the lone returning starter from last season’s NCAA Tournament team.
“This is going to be a good test for us to see where we compare to an (NCAA) Tournament team ’cause we have that goal for ourselves,” guard Kaela Chapdelaine said. “I think they are beatable. We just have to stick together and run our stuff effectively.”
Oregon (1-1) sat down together and watched film of Marquette (2-0). What they saw was a team that has lost four starters after an NCAA Tournament run a season ago but has reloaded and is playing smoothly after a win against No. 25 Wisconsin.
“I was personally very excited,” Chapdelaine said. “They are a good team. They had a lot of success last year.”
Chapdelaine, one of Oregon’s top defenders, will have the task of slowing Ellis. Ellis had a game-high 31 points in Marquette’s 67-53 defeat of No. 25 Wisconsin. Ellis made 10 of 20 field goals, dished out four assists and made four steals.
“It’s exciting. She’s an All-American honorable mention,” Chapdelaine said. “She’s got some game. She can penetrate. She can shoot. I’m ready for the challenge. I think I can do a good job. I’ve guarded All-Americans in the past like Candice Wiggins and Shay Murphy.”
Much of the Golden Eagles’ success, could also be attributed to its ability to force turnovers. They scored 25 points off of 29 Wisconsin turnovers. Oregon emphasized ball handling and handling the pressure this week after making 25 turnovers against South Dakota State.
“We practiced a lot this week against pressure with our scout boys,” Chapdelaine said. “Just really being in triple threat, sweeping. I think against South Dakota we were a little hesitant on the back foot and we let them impose themselves on us.”
On defense, coach Bev Smith wants her team to keep opponents shooting below 40 percent from the field and have the Ducks move their feet to reduce the other teams’ free throw attempts. South Dakota State shot 42.6 percent from the field and had 30 free throw attempts.
Oregon kept the South Dakota State game close, even with shooting guard Taylor Lilley missing all 12 of her shot attempts and starting forward Nicole Canepa fouling out in 15 minutes of play.
“It was pretty frustrating just ’cause I hate sitting on the bench and I love being out there helping my team,” Canepa said. “But they did really well. I wish I could have been in there to help with the scoring and the boards, but Ellie (Manou) really stepped it up and helped out with our posts.”
Manou nearly posted a double-double with 17 points and eight rebounds.
Now Oregon welcomes a tougher opponent in undefeated Marquette and a good measuring stick against an NCAA Tournament caliber team.
“They play 94 feet of basketball, both offensively and particularly defensively,” Smith said. “They will press a lot. They’re in denial and they’ll run and jump. They’ll trap. They’ll play some zone so they really have the whole gamut, but what they also bring is a level of athleticism and physical play out of the Big East that we might not be used to here in the Pac-10.”
[email protected]