Oregon women’s basketball assistant coach Dan Muscatell has a difficult time taking stock of the Ducks after 17 games.
“We’ve been a little bit up and down, I guess, would be the best way to describe it,” he said. “We weren’t great at all against the Arizona schools. I thought we had a great weekend to close Mac Court.
“We played well against USC. We didn’t play well in the last couple minutes, unfortunately.”
The Ducks had a one-point lead with 1:38 remaining against the Women of Troy last week, but USC scored four unanswered points to win, 79-76.
“That was a tough game,” junior point guard Nia Jackson said. “We should’ve had that.”
On Saturday, UCLA jumped out to a 45-18 halftime lead en route to an 87-57 victory, decimating the Ducks’ defense with 52.7 percent shooting.
“At UCLA, it’s one of those games where a combination of, we weren’t sharp and they were very sharp,” Muscatell said. “It’s one of those games where competitively, I believe, you tip your cap to the opponent and say, ‘Good job, you kicked our butts.’ Now let’s get back home and let’s get back to work.”
The UCLA game also spelled the end of Jackson’s streak of 17 games with double-figure scoring. Not since Shaquala Williams (Jan. 4 to March 3, 2002) had an Oregon player accomplished that feat.
“It’s cool,” Jackson said in reminiscence. “My big thing is assists, assist-to-turnover ratio. I’m just trying to get my team involved as a point guard. If I have to score more points for the team then I’ll do that.”
The Seattle native has upped her points per game average from 10.5 in 2009-10 to 16.3 this season. Her offensive improvement is most noticeable from beyond the arc; Jackson has made 48.4 percent of her three-pointers this season (15 of 31), compared to 31.1 percent last season.
In filling the offensive void left by Micaela Cocks’ and Taylor Lilley’s graduations, Jackson is fourth in the Pac-10 in scoring, behind Stanford forward Nnemkadi Ogwumike, teammate Amanda Johnson and Stanford guard Jeanette Pohlen.
“Nia Jackson as a point guard always has that dual option to come down and deal the ball or come down and find open shots. We leave it to her to make those split-second decisions,” Oregon head coach Paul Westhead said.
Jackson recorded her second career double-double against the Women of Troy, putting up 25 points and 11 assists in 34 minutes. Of that performance, Westhead commented, “That’s probably the perfect balance (of points and assists).”
Oregon pushes for Knight Arena sellout
The Oregon athletic department has made a stated goal of selling out Matthew Knight Arena for its inaugural women’s basketball game with a Civil War contest Saturday.
Between 9,000 and 10,000 tickets have been sold in an attempt to reach a full-capacity crowd of 12,541 fans.
“It means a lot,” freshman point guard Ariel Thomas said. “It shows how much (people) support the Oregon women’s basketball program.”
“It’s been unbelievable,” Muscatell said of the expressed support. “I told Coach Westhead that we were going to sell it out. He wasn’t a nonbeliever, but he was not sure how that was going to happen. I’m encouraging everyone: Get here. Get the place to sell out. I want to be able to look at Coach and say, ‘Hey. Told you so.’”
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