As of late, Oregon’s Andrea Bills has been quiet in terms of scoring. In Tuesday’s loss to UCLA, she recorded only four points even though she averages 10.8 points per game.
The Ducks are a road trip and a homestand into the Pacific-10 Conference season, and one thing has become clear.
Home is where the victories are.
The road is a whole different story.
In order for the Ducks to finish in the upper half of the Pac-10, they will have to improve on last year’s 2-7 mark in conference games away from McArthur Court.
Under the current tenure of head coach Bev Smith, the Ducks have gone 9-18 and have never won more than four conference games in each of the last three years on the road.
So far in the 2004-05 season, only three teams in the Pac-10 have records at .500 or above on the road. Conference front-runner UCLA (9-3 overall, 3-0 Pac-10), second-place Stanford (11-2, 3-1) and Arizona, (10-3, 2-1) which is tied for third. All three teams are expected to contend for this year’s title.
“We have to win on the road,” Oregon senior Andrea Bills said. “We have to be more aggressive offensively.”
Some of the Ducks’ biggest road tests are still to come. Oregon routinely has trouble playing both Arizona schools and still has to face Stanford and California in the final two games of the year.
One of the biggest keys to stealing a few games on the road and continuing to win at home will be the Ducks’ defensive play for the rest of the season.
The self-proclaimed hallmark of the team by players and coaches alike, solid defense will keep an inconsistent Duck offense in the game.
The Ducks rank sixth in the Pac-10 in scoring offense, averaging 68.2 points per game. They also rank last in the conference in offensive rebounds, which means Oregon relies on many one-and-done opportunities to score points.
Only two Ducks, senior Cathrine Kraayeveld and Bills, are averaging double-figures in points for the
season, with 16.1 and 10.8 per game respectively.
“(At times) we are going to struggle,” Kraayeveld said of the team’s offense. “We just gotta bring it out of ourselves. It’s a matter of pride.”
For much of the beginning of the year, the Ducks showed pride both on defense and on offense. Oregon held George Washington to 40 points at the annual Papé Jam in December, the lowest point total by a Duck opponent since Boise State scored 29 in the 2000-01 season.
In the second conference game of the year against Pac-10 powerhouse Stanford, the Ducks held the Cardinal to 52 points in their upset of the No. 5 team in the country.
However, during its current three-game road trip, the Duck defense hasn’t been up to par, as Oregon has given up 151 points against Southern California and UCLA combined.
“We didn’t play defense,” Oregon junior guard Chelsea Wagner said
after the team’s loss against USC last week. “We have to bring it defensively everyday. We didn’t have any urgency whatsoever. We’re going to have to figure that out.”
Another problem that consistently hampers the Ducks are turnovers. In its last two games, Oregon has committed 40 turnovers.
“We always beat up on each other.” Kraayeveld said of the other teams in the conference. “It will be tough.”
Indeed.
