Trailing 67-64 with one minute left, No. 3 Oregon women’s basketball’s junior Sabrina Ionescu sank a deep 3-pointer to tie the Ducks with No. 18 Syracuse, 67 apiece. Redshirt sophomore transfer Erin Boley followed suit downing another 3, just half a minute later, to roars from 6,879 fans in Matthew Knight Arena for the Ducks’ home debut Saturday afternoon.
Behind double-doubles from juniors Ruthy Hebard and Sabrina Ionescu, the No. 10 and No. 1 ranked players in the NCAA, respectively, the Ducks managed a 75-73 win by the skin of their teeth in their home opener.
“I knew it was time that I had to hit some big-time shots and my teammates got me the ball,” said Ionescu. “As soon as I released it I knew that it was going in.”
Ionescu led in points for the Ducks with 26 and tallied 10 rebounds and six assists. Boley managed 13 points. Following a 3-pointer by sophomore Satou Sabally just 15 seconds into the game, Boley made back-to-back 3s to give the Ducks an early 9-4 lead.   
Boley, who made the shot to give Oregon the final lead, shot just 26 percent from the field, with just 3-of-12 from beyond the arc.
“Not every night [I’m] going to be able to shoot the lights out, but I think I just came in wanting to contribute in any way I can,” Boley said. “I try to go into every shot knowing that it’s going in no matter how many I missed before that.”
At the end of the first, Boley led with six pointsfor Oregon in her first game with the Ducks at home, and Ionescu followed with four to give Oregon a 20-10 lead. Hebard remained scoreless in the first, while freshman Taylor Chavez made her home debut and redshirt sophomore Morgan Yaeger returned to Matthew Knight Arena after sitting out last season with a back injury.
The Orange outscored the Ducks in every quarter except the first with scores of 17-14, 17-14 and 29-27. Behind a full-court press, Syracuse put pressure on the two-time Elite Eight team. Oregon, who shot 50 percent in the first, shot a combined 32 percent the rest of the game, and gave up 12 turnovers.
“We’re not the quickest team,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said. “We didn’t do a great job with our interior defense, plus we allowed them to get some put backs once in the paint.”
Still, the No. 3 team managed the win by just two points.
“That’s why they got the No. 1 (Ionescu) and No. 10 (Hebard) players in the county,” Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “They get after it; they’re just tremendous players, well-coached.”
The Ducks play at Utah State on Wednesday at 6 p.m. and will return to Matthew Knight on Nov. 18 to play Buffalo at 2 p.m.
Follow Sierra Webster on Twitter @WebsterSierraE.