After a 91-56 loss to Stanford in which his team shot 25 percent from the field, head coach Paul Westhead was clear on where his team needed improvement.
“You can’t win if you can’t make shots,” he said.
Westhead could well have added, “It’s hard to win if you don’t rebound the basketball.”
After getting out-rebounded by the Cardinal 68-32 on Thursday, the Ducks surrendered 21 offensive rebounds to Cal in an 81-65 loss Saturday.
The defeat, Oregon’s fourth in its last five games, dropped the Ducks’ record to 12-8 overall and 3-6 in Pacific-10 Conference play.
Hitting the boards has been an issue for Oregon all season, but it seemed to reach a pinnacle on Saturday. Time and time again, the Ducks would make a defensive stand and force the Golden Bears into a missed shot, only to let Cal get second and third chances to score.
“We talk to the point where we can’t talk about it anymore,” Oregon forward Amanda Johnson said. “It is a continuous problem … I don’t remember the last game we out-rebounded our opponent. In second chance points, they had 24, we had eight.”
Cal’s advantage in that category nullified one of Oregon’s better offensive efforts of the season. For the game the Ducks shot 46.3 percent from the field — their second-best mark of the season.
Johnson broke out of a lengthy slump to score 26 points on 10 of 16 shooting, and point guard Nia Jackson added 14. And for a while, it looked like the Ducks’ offensive efficiency would be enough to overcome their poor rebounding.
The Ducks made seven of their 14 three-point attempts in the first half, taking a 38-36 halftime lead. Oregon was able to counter Cal’s 12 second-chance points with 52 percent shooting and solid floor defense — the Ducks held the Bears to 37.5 percent shooting in the first half.
But things began to unravel for the Ducks midway through the second half. With Cal up 56-53, Bear forward DeNesha Stallworth missed a jumper, but her teammate Lindsay Sherbert grabbed the offensive rebound and scored. Moments later, Cal guard Eliza Pierre scored a layup to extend the Bears’ lead to seven.
The teams traded baskets over the next few minutes, and a Tatianna Thomas layup helped Oregon trim the Bears’ lead to 63-57, but that was as close as the Ducks would get.
Three more offensive rebounds in a little under two minutes resulted in a 7-0 Cal run, and the Bears effectively put the game out of reach, up 70-57 with five minutes left.
Cal’s scoring run was also helped by Oregon’s inability to replicate its first-half shooting. The Ducks shot only 41 percent in the second period, and notably, missed all 11 of their three-point attempts.
“This was two different games,” Westhead said. “The first half we were competitive, we shot the ball well, Amanda Johnson was stroking outside shots, and we had a pretty good spread of offense. The second half we didn’t shoot the ball. We had no three-point baskets. Offense was in a stuck gear and that exposed us inside, which gave us double trouble.”
The Ducks will return to action on Thursday when they travel to Seattle to play Washington.
It’s another opportunity for Oregon to rebound with intensity and effort.
“We need to do a better job competing and getting after the opponent,” Jackson said. “We have let teams push and shove us. Coach talks about that fire, and we need more fire in our belly.”
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Rebounding, shooting struggles plague Westhead’s squad
Daily Emerald
January 30, 2011
Alex McDougall
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