And then there were four.
With a 76-54 win over UCLA on Saturday at McArthur Court, the Oregon women’s basketball team is now in a four-way tie for second place in the Pacific-10 Conference.
Arizona State, Southern California and Oregon State are also three and a half games behind Stanford for first place in the conference, and all have seven games left.
After sweeping their first weekend series since late December, the Ducks (12-8 overall, 7-4 Pac-10) have brought themselves back from the depths.
“We looked at this series, thinking that it was probably a moment where could get some separation,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. “Right now, I think we’re back in the thick of it.”
The first 30 minutes of Saturday night’s play pointed everywhere but up for Oregon.
Shooting a woeful 25 percent from the field in the first half, Oregon looked more like a team destined to finish in the bottom third of the conference. UCLA (5-14, 2-9), demolished by Oregon State by 45 points Thursday, did not look much better, but capitalized on Oregon miscues.
The halftime score read something that most wouldn’t have imagined entering the game. UCLA led 27-26.
Time to panic? Maybe, but the Ducks sure didn’t.
“I think we were able to get over our early woes and put them away,” junior Shaquala Williams said. “They played hard, but I think we were just sloppy at points of the game.”
Sloppy may be an understatement. The Bruins were able to take the ball away from the Ducks 13 times, and scored 13 points off 16 Oregon turnovers.
The Bruins were not much better. Oregon was not as successful in taking the ball away from the Bruins, recording four steals, but UCLA could not hold on to the ball. Eighteen Bruin turnovers led to 23 Oregon points.
But that still wasn’t enough for the Ducks to maintain a sizeable lead, with UCLA virtually matching the Ducks point-for-point until midway through the second half.
Then the wheels fell off.
“With 10 minutes left, that’s kind of been our problem all year,” UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said about the Bruins’ inability to remain competitive to the end. “We have a good basketball team for 20 minutes, we’re an average basketball team for 30 minutes, then things start going a little bit for our opponents and we get a little down.”
After going 3-for-10 from the field in the first half, Williams sprung out in the second, nailing 6-of-7 from the field and 2-of-3 from beyond the 3-point arc. Her 23 points paced the Ducks.
Up by four, 49-45, with 10 minutes left in the second, the Ducks went on an 11-4 run, finally separating themselves from the Bruins.
Minutes later, Oregon would take another run against the Bruins, and this time, one that was good enough to put the game away for good. The last five minutes of the game would be all Oregon, with the Ducks posting 16 points to the Bruins’ four.
After making the 5,142 fans at McArthur Court gasp for air in the first 30 minutes, the Ducks put on a show at the end, showing what they can do when all cylinders are in motion.
Prior to this weekend, the Ducks had dropped two straight to Oregon State and Stanford. But wins over USC and UCLA now have the Ducks back on the winning road.
“We just take it one game at a time,” sophomore Cathrine Kraayeveld said. “I think we really needed to get these wins (against USC, UCLA) to stay in the Pac-10 race.”
Kraayeveld, for the third time this season, recorded a double-double, grabbing 14 boards and scoring 16 points. Her 63 rebounds in the last five games is the most any Oregon player has had since Alison Lang had 63 toward the end of the 1983-84 season.