The Ducks have experienced some déjà vu lately.
The Oregon women’s basketball team is in a tie for sixth with USC in the Pacific-10 Conference standings and, at this same time last year, the Ducks were in a tie for fifth with two games until the tournament.
Last year, Oregon defeated the Cougars, fell to Washington in its final two games and approached the tournament as the No. 7 seed. Although that’s exactly what the women don’t want this time around, as they face the Cal schools in their final two games.
“We want to finish sixth or above because we don’t want to play in the games before the Pac-10 Tournament,” senior Alissa Edwards said. “Right now, we are just taking it one game at a time. Every game is important to us because it’s going to affect our postseason.”
Oregon (11-14 overall, 7-9 Pac-10) entered the conference tournament last year above .500 at 15-12 and 10-8 in conference.
The Pac-10 Tournament is a focus of interest right now, and as the anticipation is growing, the Ducks are confident in their ability to play with any of the other nine teams.

“We played Stanford in a good game and they’re right at the top, so we can play against the teams in the Pac-10,” Edwards said. “It’s about how hard we play and if we execute what we need to do.”
Oregon’s next two games against USC, which is tied with Oregon, and UCLA, which is two spots up the ladder, allow the Ducks to determine their own destiny entering the tournament.
The Ducks have proved they can play with any team over the course of the season and now can’t wait for the games this time around. And if history does repeat itself, another Women’s National Invitational Tournament title wouldn’t be anything to complain about.

Defense wins

basketball games
With the exception of the downfall against Washington, Oregon’s defense has been evolving.
The Ducks recently held Arizona State, Cal and Washington State to just 52 points, which is the fewest amount of points an opponent has scored against Oregon this season. The Ducks held each opponent under 40 percent shooting, for the fifth, sixth and seventh times this season.
“We realized we have to stop people on the defensive end if we want to win games or even be in competition in the game,” sophomore Andrea Bills said. “We know we can score on offense, but defense makes our games and defense gets offense going.”
With Oregon stepping up its level of play and taking better care of the ball, the defense has followed in the recent success. Junior Cathrine Kraayeveld returned to the court recently, and her 29 blocked shots, which would rank fifth in the Pac-10 if she had played in enough games, has allowed for some of the newfound defensive success.
“Everybody just got together and said we need to play defense,” Edwards said. “People are stepping up and taking pride in what they do on defense.”

Recent endeavors
A few of Oregon’s players have been making strides to improve their games. Not only are they making assaults on the record books, but it has allowed for Oregon to come closer to a winning season.
Sophomore Brandi Davis has drained 50 three-pointers this season, ranking her sixth on the school’s career single-season list. Davis needs to drop only four more to pass senior Shaquala Williams for fourth.
Sophomore Kedzie Gunderson has done a 180-degree turn on her ball-handling skills since the start of the season. In the first 12 games, Gunderson had 12 assists and 31 turnovers, but in the last 13 games, she has accounted for 29 assists and 21 turnovers.
Freshman Carolyn Ganes needs to only maintain her 11.7 scoring average to make the highest mark for a freshman since Brianne Meharry in 1997-98.