Coming off of an impressive road win and a relatively quiet week of practice, the women’s basketball team is confident and itching to begin the second half of the Pacific-10 Conference season.
After a disheartening five-game losing steak, the Ducks finally seemed to regain their form against USC. Senior guard Taylor Lilley poured in 36 points with a Pac-10 record nine three-pointers, and the rest of the team did its part to collectively wear down the Trojans.
“The USC game was perfectly timed,” junior forward Victoria Kenyon said. “To have a win and also keep progressing in that scale of getting better. (We’re) very confident for the next half of Pac-10.”
It was an inspiring effort, and head coach Paul Westhead was very pleased.
“Our last game down in Southern California I think gave us some good spark and good momentum,” Westhead said. “It’s nice to be home, and we had a good week of practice. We took some time off, so I think we’re ready to go.”
Sensing the team needed a bit of a break, Westhead decided to cancel practice on Wednesday. Coupled with its usual day off on Sunday, the team was given two days off to gear up for the all-important home stretch of the season. Needless to say, the team appreciated the gesture.
“It does give us a little more time to rest,” junior guard Candyce Flynn said. “A lot of people’s legs were hurting; they were tired.”
The way Westhead’s teams play, it is only natural for them to hit the wall at some point in the season. It is his hope that after this week, the team will be fresh and ready to play.
“We’re just trying to keep them in good condition without wearing them out,” Westhead said.
It is a task easier said than done, but the Ducks showed few signs of wear and tear in USC game.
“We didn’t run out of gas against (USC),” Westhead said. “Some of the games that we weren’t successful, it seemed like our shooting went down and it seemed like we just lost some of our pop.”
Thanks in large part to Lilley, the team’s shooting did not suffer against USC. As Westhead asked all season, the Ducks maintained a constant rhythm throughout the game.
“We played 40 minutes pretty consistently,” Westhead said. “We defended well, we missed some shots in the second half that could have triggered us kind of slipping down, but the defense stayed up.”
Still, there is always room for improvement. Not one to introduce too many new details, Westhead has focused primarily on improving what the team does best.
“We’re still trying to clean up some of our full court press defenses,” Westhead said. “Trying to clean up some our offensive schemes in the half court. We don’t like to get caught in the half court, but when we do, we’re looking to be a little sharper in our screening and inside play.”
When everything is clicking, Oregon’s style of play has proven to demoralize and tire opponents. It may be predictable, but it has proven very effective.
“We don’t ever change anything,” Flynn said. “We do everything the same: press and run. Teams can change what they want to do against us, but we stick with the press and run.
“That’s all we need, I guess.”
At this point in the season, the Ducks are well aware of what they need to do to start a winning streak of their own. Armed with a fresh batch of confidence, the team seems primed to do just that.
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