It was hard for Oregon players to be satisfied with their 61-50 win over Nevada Sunday at McArthur Court. The Ducks shot five of 20 from the field in the second half and were outrebounded 40-32 in a game that featured a combined 45 fouls.
“It was an ugly game that we won, but we’re not satisfied with that,” Oregon’s Chelsea Wagner said.
The senior tied her career-high with 21 points in 30 minutes of play to lead Oregon. Her trio of first-half three-pointers lifted the Ducks to an early lead that they never let go of. She added two more in the second half to finish five of seven from beyond the arc. She may have had Oregon’s hottest hand Sunday, but she felt any of her teammates could have performed just as well.
“I was hitting my shot well tonight,” she said. “We have so many players that can hit the shot and tonight it was me.”
Oregon coach Bev Smith was pleased with Wagner’s play throughout the game.
“I liked Chelsea’s contributions,” Smith said. “She was not afraid to shoot the ball.”
Wagner’s start Sunday was the first of the season for the shooting guard from Springfield High. She has been hampered by a past knee injury aggravated in Oregon’s Nov. 6 exhibition game against Northwest Sports.
The Wolfpack had 20 defensive rebounds, leading to 21 transition points. They also had 17 points off of turnovers. Sabrina Keys led Nevada with 15 points.
Smith admired the play of Nevada who lacked size compared to her team.
“Hats off to Nevada, they played a good game, they were very physical,” Smith said. “We challenged the ball tonight, we defended OK. Defense fuels our offense and when the defense isn’t working, we can’t move on offense.”
Also preventing the Ducks from moving on offense were the game officials who were making calls well into the last 30 seconds of regulation.
“The officiating was frustrating,” Smith said. “(Officials) slowed the tempo. We have to be bigger than that, we have to play through it.”
During last week in practice, Nevada coach Kim Gervasoni told her team not to expect a high-scoring game against Oregon.
“They (Ducks) have the size to contest the shot,” Gervasoni said. “Our shot selection was definitely not good. I knew going into today that we were not going to score a lot of points. We needed to pick up on defense.”
Oregon (2-1) plays next on the road against the University of Portland (0-2) Tuesday night. They come home to face Arkansas (1-0) Friday at 5 p.m.

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