Pauley Pavilion provided the preview for up and coming attractions Saturday afternoon.
Senior Michelle Greco hit the game winner for UCLA to overcome Oregon 56-54 in a last-second thriller.
The Ducks had their chances in the end, but after three strikes, they were out.
After Greco’s final shot, sophomore Amy Taylor threw a full-court pass to junior Cathrine Kraayeveld, who beat the defense, yet missed the lay-up and didn’t get a foul. Strike one.
With 2.7 seconds left, Oregon (12-15, 8-10 Pac-10) inbounded the ball to Kraayeveld but two Bruin defenders knocked the ball away. Strike two. Oregon had its last chance with 1.6 left. The ball was lobbed to Kraayeveld over junior Whitney Jones but her shot was no good. Strike three.
“We had our opportunities to win this game,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. “For me and our coaching staff and our players; we had the game, we had the opportunity and it kind of slipped away from us.”
Despite Oregon’s loss, the Ducks moved from seventh to fifth in the Pacific-10 Conference standings on the weekend. And with the Bruins in a secure fourth position, the two squads will meet again to do battle Saturday.
It was an afternoon that included everything in Los Angeles as the Ducks and Bruins met for the second time, after Oregon took a huge 93-68 loss earlier at McArthur Court.
From the opening tip to the Bruins, Oregon struggled. UCLA (17-10, 12-6 Pac-10) opened a 9-0 lead early on the Ducks as it took Oregon more than five minutes to get on the scoreboard. But after a timeout by Smith, Oregon stepped out on the floor a changed team.
After patience and composure from the offense, the Ducks led 16-15 with just more than five minutes until halftime. The Ducks continued to dominate on Senior Day at the Pavilion and led 28-22 into the locker room.
The final 20 minutes provided much more theatrics than the first as Oregon, which led by only six at the half, caught fire and opened up a 13-point lead early. And what became comfortable, the Ducks soon realized the game was far from done.
The Bruins quietly crept their way back into the game, and the full-court press helped to scatter Oregon’s offense. With more than six minutes left, UCLA trailed 46-44.
“In the second half, when they turned up their defensive pressure, we started to play tentative and we started going into a passing mode rather than an attack mode — that got us the lead in the first place,” Smith said.
It went back and forth, but after sophomore Kedzie Gunderson fouled out at 4:46, the Bruins soon saw daylight with a 51-51 tie. Tragedy again struck Oregon as junior Kayla Steen was on a fast break and her knee buckled and then a Bruin defender landed on her. The Ducks do not yet know the severity to the injury.
The Ducks took the lead once more, 54-52, off free-throws from Kraayeveld, but with just more than a minute to play, it was all Greco’s night.
As a fifth-year senior for UCLA, Greco couldn’t have wished for a better script in her last game at Pauley Pavilion. She led all scorers with 18 points and had five rebounds. Jones and freshman Nikki Blue, who combined for 50 points in the teams’ first meeting, each had just seven.
Sophomore Andrea Bills led Oregon as the catalyst to the offense all afternoon, with 15 points and 11 rebounds. It is just the second double-double of Bills’ career. Kraayeveld added nine points and Taylor had eight for the Ducks.
After shooting 10-of-24 in the first half, the Ducks finished at 38 percent from the field. Oregon won the rebound margin 41-34 but turned the ball over 22 times.
The Bruins were just 33 percent from the field, but blazed on the foul line at 87 percent. UCLA also had nine assists and 15 turnovers.
UCLA won the battle at home, but in seven days the two will do war at the Pac-10 Tournament.
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