On the eve of a critical game against No. 2 Stanford, Paul Westhead’s message was succinct.
“If you run it, you’ll win it,” Westhead told the Oregon women’s basketball team during Tuesday’s practice.
No surprise there: Westhead’s fast-break offense and press defense are laid bare to opposing teams, whose prerogative it is to stop them. What is impressive is the grace with which the Ducks have maintained it.
That much can be attributed to Oregon’s physical fitness level, which was put on display in its sweep of the Arizona schools.
“People on the bench looked to the court and just saw Arizona bent over,” forward Victoria Kenyon said of the Ducks’ 92-74 win over the Wildcats on Thursday. “That’s a good feeling for us. We’re very fit and we maintain that. It’s a great advantage over other teams.”
“Coach (Westhead) brought up a point of how we’re scoring in the first half versus the second half during the losing stretch, where we were in every single game, but in the second half we couldn’t match the point level and intensity,” assistant coach Keila Whittington said. “I think it’s the focus of the team to pay attention to that. In the final 20 minutes, that’s where the game is won.”
On Saturday, the Ducks kept up a frenetic pace en route to an 82-81 win against Arizona State, the first comeback from a halftime deficit this season. The win was all the more impressive considering Oregon used just seven players. The Sun Devils used 10 players, consistent with head coach Charli Turner Thorne’s deep player rotation.
“Getting over the hump in the Arizona State game — it had to be our mentality, our second wind,” Whittington said. “That’s conditioning.”
Kenyon, who has started 23 of the Ducks’ 24 games, has played 590 minutes this season, compared to 311 in all of 2008-09. She credits Westhead’s rigorous offseason workout regimen — and the coaching staff’s decision to rest the team at least twice over the past three weeks — for keeping the Ducks’ fitness level high.
“Looking back in preseason, we were so tired,” Kenyon said. “There’s not really a feeling of fatigue at all. Looking back on this season as opposed to last season, we don’t have any major injuries, which is a blessing.
“Fitness-wise, there’s no real difference between the people who play and don’t play. We’ve all worked our butts off.”
For Whittington, Westhead and the coaching staff, the team understands the level of physical fitness needed to play fast-break basketball at a consistently high level.
“I think they realize now that it is because of the shape that they’re end that we’re able to do the things that we do and maintain our effort on the offensive end,” Whittington said.
No longer number one

Despite increasing its scoring average against the Arizona schools, Oregon has lost its title as the NCAA leader in scoring average.
Oral Roberts is now the NCAA scoring leader, averaging 85.6 points per game to the Ducks’ 85.3. Freshman guard Kevi Luper leads four scorers in double figures, averaging 25.7 points per game, well above Taylor Lilley’s team-leading 16.3 points per game.
The Golden Eagles are 18-8 overall and lead the Summit League with a 12-3 conference record.
As seen on TV

Fox Sports Net has deemed the women’s basketball team ready for its close-up, opting to regionally broadcast the Oregon-UCLA game at McArthur Court on Feb. 27.
The game, the Ducks’ last contest in McArthur Court before the opening of the Matthew Knight Arena, will be the second television appearance for Oregon. FSN also broadcast the Ducks’ 100-80 home loss to No. 2 Stanford on Jan. 23.
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