SAN ANTONIO — The Ducks needed a physical and mental break after their loss in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals two weeks ago. They spent the days leading up to their trip to San Antonio practicing two days on with one day off the court before arriving at the Alamodome.
The rest proved to be vital. The Ducks’ renewed energy was on display on Monday night in the opening round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, as the Ducks dominated the Coyotes from the tip, 67-47.
“Since the Pac-12 Tournament ended, we were looking forward to this opportunity to come out and show that we’re better than that,” senior Erin Boley said. “That’s the reason why we were able to come out with so much energy and play so hard.”
With the absence of point guard Te-Hina Paopao, Maddie Scherr received the nod and slipped into the starting lineup for the second time this season. Scherr took the opportunity and ran with it, proving she’s one of the best defenders on the team as she wrecked havoc on that side of the ball.
She spearheaded Oregon’s stifling defense from the jump. In the second quarter, the freshman played nose-to-nose on-ball defense on Korngable for most of the possessions, then sacrificed her body and dove on the ground for a jump ball as the shot clock winded down. A possession later, Scherr created another tie-up that forced the Coyotes to reset their offense.
“[Scherr] set the tone,” Graves said. “She was the point person in those presses that we were running, and she’s just disruptive.”
By the end of the first quarter, Scherr and the Ducks held the Coyotes to a mere eight points while nursing a 17-point lead, 25-8.
Midway through the second quarter, her hands were on her knees, huffing and puffing, trying to not let up the gas on defense. Behind Scherr’s aggressiveness and hustle, Oregon held the Coyotes to a single point in the second quarter and zero three-pointers through the entire first half.
“She’s our best on-ball defender,” Graves said. “We needed that tonight, and she delivered. To say that about a freshman making her first start — congratulations to her.”
On the other end, the Coyotes had no answer for Oregon’s tall frontcourt of Nyara Sabally and Sedona Prince. The duo finished with 17 and 12, respectively. When South Dakota attempted to shutdown Oregon’s easy layups and put-backs, the two post players worked the ball inside-out. As the double teams came, they kicked it out to a trigger-happy Boley on the perimeter.
“We knew we were going to have a size advance inside, and I think we did a great job in order to get that good start that we got in the first quarter,” Boley said. “We were really able to pound the ball inside and take advantage of our height and our length.”
Boley found her stroke early with eight points that contributed to a 13-point Oregon lead in the first quarter. The senior led all scorers, finishing with 22 points on 4-for-6 shooting from three-point territory.
The Ducks nailed their defensive mindset Monday night and the constant pressure was too stifling for South Dakota to come back from. The Ducks’ hard-nosed defense forced South Dakota into 14 turnovers, which led to 20 Oregon points on the other end.
Oregon was as sharp as they’ve been all season on both ends of the floor. They held South Dakota to 22% shooting from the field and 5-for-23 from three. Only two South Dakota players, Hannah Sjerven (18) and Liv Korngable (15), finished in double-digits.
“For the most part of 40 minutes tonight I thought we could rebound better, we can take care of the ball better, but other than those two areas I thought we were on point pretty much the whole night,” Graves said.
The Ducks advance to the round of 32 and will face No. 3 seeded Georgia — who defeated No. 14 Drexel — on Wednesday, March 22 at 12 p.m. PT on ESPN2.
Follow Carly on Twitter @carlyebisuya as she continues coverage of Oregon throughout the NCAA Tournament.
