What a wild and wacky season it has become for the Oregon women’s basketball team.
And with just one game left in the Pacific-10 Conference season, it seems to be at just the tip of the iceberg.
The Ducks got 19 points from junior Cathrine Kraayeveld to narrowly defeat USC, 75-70, in front of a paltry 547 fans Thursday at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
The win gives Oregon four in its last five games, but more importantly, pushes the Ducks into a fifth-place tie with Oregon State. The Beavers were 81-72 losers to UCLA on Thursday.
“It’s a tremendous victory,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith told KSCR-AM. “We had a good game plan, and our players stuck to it.”
As mentioned, the Oregon win now muddles the middle of the Pac-10.
The Ducks (12-14 overall, 8-9 Pac-10) stepped closer to at least a sixth-place finish with the win, even though they are currently tied for fifth. If Oregon and Oregon State both win or lose Saturday — the Ducks against UCLA and the Beavers against the Trojans — Oregon State would win the tiebreaker.
If that happens and USC ends the season tied with the Ducks, Oregon would win the tiebreaker because it won both games between the teams this season.
There is a black cat in the equation. Arizona State, which defeated California, 61-47, Thursday, must lose to Stanford on Saturday. The Sun Devils would win the tiebreaker over Oregon if they are able to defeat the Cardinal.
But Stanford won the first contest, 80-63.
Got all that?
But after Oregon’s impressive victory, the Pac-10 equation is the furthest thing from their minds. A much-improved shooting exhibition was.
The Ducks shot 57 percent from the field and were 6-of-11 from beyond the arc.
That’s far different from the 19 percent Oregon shot in the first half against Washington last week.
“We really shook (the Washington game) off,” Smith said. “We were just aggressive all game (Thursday), and that was important to us, to not back down.”
Every Duck but freshman Yadili Okwumabua scored in the win, with sophomore Brandi Davis pitching in 11 points and Andrea Bills adding 10 — all in the first half.
The teams tied in rebounds at 32 apiece, but USC grabbed more offensively, 15 to Oregon’s seven. That alone may have explained why the Trojans were able to make a game of it after trailing by 10 at halftime.
Oregon led by as many as 14 early on in the second half, but with just more than 12 minutes left in the game, the Trojans chipped that figure away to seven.
Ebony Hoffman, who finished the night with 27 points, hit a three-pointer at the 5:19 mark of the half to pull USC within nine, 66-57.
Hoffman then, in an unusual sequence where Kraayeveld, Bills and Kedzie Gunderson were called for three-straight fouls, hit four-straight free throws to knock Oregon’s lead down to five, 67-62.
But sophomore Amy Taylor, who has come on late in the season, knocked down a three with 1:18 left to ice the game for the Ducks.
“People just came in and did what they could in their minutes,” Smith said. “Amy Taylor, what can you say about her?”
With USC in foul mode, the Ducks made just four of their eight free throws with less than a minute left, but as Smith put it, the Ducks “hit the ones we needed to.”
The win gives the battered and sick Ducks an opportunity to capitalize Saturday. But it will be with a team that is facing sickness and injury.
Senior Alissa Edwards and freshman Carolyn Ganes both entered the game with colds — the latter playing in just 12 minutes. Davis also looked to be injured early in the first half with trainers later looking at the guard’s ankle. However, she came back to nail a second three-pointer, her 52nd of the season, tying her with Shaquala Williams for fifth-most in an Oregon single season.
The Ducks visit UCLA on Saturday with tipoff set for 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports Net.