Corrie Mizusawa tied her Oregon career high Thursday with 13 points in the most dramatic way possible.
After a teammate grabbed the rebound when Stanford’s Nicole Powell missed a free throw with 21.8 seconds remaining, Mizusawa — in classic point-guard mode — took the pass from her teammate and dribbled down the court.
And for the second time in 12 seconds, the passing phenom drove to the basket to do the job herself. A few steps, a double pump and a couple heart-wrenching seconds later, the Ducks were ahead of No. 10 Stanford, 67-66, with 8.2 seconds remaining.
“I think I had a step on (Stanford’s Susan Borchardt),” Mizusawa said. “I had a pretty wide-open lane. I just drove past her and threw it up there.”
The Cardinal (20-6 overall, 13-4 Pacific-10 Conference) called a 30-second timeout, but Powell’s final-second attempt was short of the basket and left Oregon (13-14, 5-12) in a screaming huddle at the middle of a joyous McArthur Court.
“As soon as that shot went up, I was screaming,” forward Kedzie Gunderson said. “It was just one of those things. (Powell) was off-balance, (Andrea Bills) was right up there challenging with me, you could see it on (Powell’s) face that she knew that wasn’t going in. There were tears of joy practically coming down my face.”
In a way, the win was therapeutic for the Ducks. After starting the season 5-0, Oregon slowly succumbed to injury after injury, loss after loss. Now struggling for a .500 finish, the Ducks’ upset of the nation’s 10th-ranked team gives members of the team confidence.
The game marked the first start of the season for guard Kayla Steen. The Ducks’ lone senior to use up her eligibility, Steen’s start and the Ducks’ win was an emotional way for the Portland native to begin her final homestand.
“Surprisingly, I was nervous (starting),” Steen said. “But it was the good kind of nervous. I definitely wanted these last two games to be memorable. Not only did I get the start, which was exciting for me, but we got the win, which was, I think, even more exciting. You kind of forget about the start.”
Oregon head coach Bev Smith didn’t forget about the start, at least her squad’s start. The Ducks worked the 4,167 in attendance into a frenzy early, taking a 15-5 lead four minutes into the game.
Even after Oregon gave a little ground and entered the locker room tied at 33 at halftime, Smith had confidence in her team. The Ducks are now 4-0 when tied at halftime.

“We’ve struggled with (the starts) all year,” Smith said. “That was our focus this week in terms of trying to do things that need to be done at the beginning of the game, to build our confidence to feel good about what we’re doing.”
Freshman forward Eleanor Haring scored a career-high 18 points and led the Ducks with seven rebounds. Mizusawa added nine assists to her 13 points, giving her 170 assists this season to put her one behind the No. 2 spot on Oregon’s all-time, single-season assists list. Mizusawa played her first game without a brace on her left knee after partially tearing the lateral meniscus in her knee Feb. 12.
Guard Chelsea Wagner, who has made the second-most three-point shots for Oregon this season, didn’t play Thursday. She suffered the same injury as Mizusawa on Jan. 15 and had played with a brace on her knee. Smith said Wagner’s knee was the reason she didn’t play.
“We haven’t had the season we wanted to (due to injuries and losses),” Mizusawa said. “Coming out and beating the No. 10 team in America and just getting a rhythm to get to the Pac-10 tournament, and (now we’ll) see how we do in the Pac-10 tournament.”
Smith wants her players to carry the momentum of the upset into Saturday’s 1 p.m. game against California and beyond. The Ducks and Golden Bears will play for a third time this season March 5 in the opening round of the Pac-10 Tournament, but Saturday’s game is the final tipoff at Mac Court.
“Tonight’s game gave us a big, huge flame that we can now go with,” said Steen, the team’s backup point guard and lone graduating senior. “Not just for Saturday’s game, but into the Pac-10 tournament.”