When Carolyn Ganes received an entry pass under the basket during Tuesday’s intra-squad scrimmage at McArthur Court, she wasn’t sure exactly how she was supposed to score.
It wasn’t that the sophomore forward was unfamiliar with scoring. In fact, she led Oregon with 10.9 points per game last year.
On this day, Ganes’ confusion came from the defensive presence of 6-foot-6-inch freshman forward Jessica Shetters. After several pump fakes, Ganes went up, only to have her shot swatted away by Shetters’ long wingspan.
Such offensive struggles were plentiful for Oregon during Tuesday’s scrimmage, as a combination of enthusiastic defense and early-season jitters led to an off-shooting night for the Ducks.
The scrimmage featured players switching back and forth between green and yellow teams. Play was divided into four eight-minute quarters with the score being reset at each frame’s end.
Shetters broke a scoreless tie with an eight-foot turnaround jumper for the yellow team, more than two and a half minutes into the first quarter. Players combined to shoot 23 percent for the period and 36 percent for the scrimmage.
Despite the team’s offensive struggles, head coach Bev Smith said she was happy with the way the Ducks played defense and rebounded the basketball.
“I was really happy with the three things we talked about,” Smith said. “We talked about defense, we talked about rebounding and offensively, all we asked for was execution. We executed well in getting open shots, we just didn’t hit them.”

Shetters shines
Shetters was one Duck who was knocking down her shots. The tallest prep recruit in the nation showed her ability to hit from the outside as well as the inside, drilling several shots in the 15-to-18-foot range. She finished with 13 points on 6 of 9 shooting.
“I really feel like everything we’ve been doing in practice came together tonight,” Shetters said. “A couple of times in practice I’ve been struggling with either my inside shots or my outside shots. Tonight it all came together, and I’m really happy about that.”
Defensively, Shetters has worked hard on her technique.
“On defense, I’m just used to being pounded on the inside because I’m not exactly as big as some of the other players,” Shetters said. “It’s all about footwork, which is what I’ve learned. All the practices have made me realize that I can be quicker than them.”

Early season nerves
Junior guard Brandi Davis, who was tied for the team lead in scoring last year, got off to a slow start, but finished by hitting her last three shots. Davis attributed the Ducks’ shooting woes to strong defense and the jitters that come with playing in front of a crowd.
“(We came out) really excited because this was the first time we’ve played in front of the fans this year,” Davis said. “If we get the proper warm-up that we need we’ll be all right.”

Exciting ending
Tuesday’s scrimmage ended on a positive note as players were exposed to an end-of-game situation. Trailing 17-16 with 10 seconds remainin. Ganes, who had missed 11 of her first 12 shots, popped open in the key and drilled a 10-foot jumper for the game winner.