Chelsea Wagner has established herself as the scoring threat that Oregon has so desperately needed.
During the last five games, the sophomore guard has averaged 11.4 points and knocked down 16 of 38 three-point attempts.
Battling a torn lateral meniscus in her left knee, the Springfield native has hit 10 three-pointers in the last two games.
Wagner’s recent success didn’t come without struggle. She suffered an ankle injury in the preseason, bringing her practice time and conditioning to a halt. She saw limited playing time early in the season and had trouble fitting into the offensive flow.
It’s safe to say that Wagner has found a comfort zone.
Her perimeter scoring has taken some of the pressure off Andrea Bills inside and has opened up lanes for teammates to drive through.
“I definitely have a little more confidence in my shot,” Wagner said. “We needed
someone to go out there and extend the defense a little bit to get (Bills) open a little bit more. I just kind of took that upon myself and I’ve been quite fortunate that they’ve been dropping for me.”

Closing time
Oregon (10-9 overall, 2-7 Pacific-10 Conference) used the last three games to address several areas of concern.
The Ducks seemed to solve their problems with scoring, rebounding and handling pressure defense during the three-game stretch, but they have stumbled onto a new problem: They can’t hold a lead.
Oregon held second-half leads against Arizona and Arizona State last week but were unable to close out either opponent.
The Ducks had a late six-point lead against the Wildcats but were outscored 11-1 during the game’s final five minutes. Oregon was up by eight on the Sun Devils with 3:59 remaining but was outscored 13-3 down the stretch.
“We need to do what we’ve done for 40 minutes,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. “Not wait until the other team catches up and then try to do some last-minute heroics because that’s too late.”
Despite the losses, the Ducks have drastically improved their rebounding effort. Oregon has held its own in the paint after being dominated earlier in the season. The Ducks have out-rebounded their opponents 107-104 during the last three games. On Saturday the Ducks held a 33-32 advantage over Arizona State, which has the best rebounding margin in the conference.

Moving on
The first half of the conference schedule came to a close Saturday with the Ducks winning only two of nine games.
Besides blowout road losses to then-No. 9 Stanford and Washington, Oregon had a chance to win every game. The Ducks are confident they can improve in the second half.
One reason to have confidence in the Ducks is freshman Eleanor Haring. The 6-foot-1 forward is one of Oregon’s most athletic players and has stepped up on both sides of the ball.
“We went through some tough spots and we’ve really rebounded back,” Haring said. “I think last weekend was a sign. Although we didn’t get the wins, we really played hard. We know we’re (really) close and it will be interesting to see how the last half of the season goes.”
Oregon had an outside chance of competing for the Pac-10 title until Cathrine Kraayeveld was lost for the season on Dec. 2 with an anterior cruciate ligament tear in her right knee. Since then, Oregon has had to scratch and claw for every basket and every rebound. While the Ducks came out strong in several games, not having anything come easy usually took its toll by game’s end.
Oregon lost to California, UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State by a combined 16 points.
Despite their struggles, Smith said she’s happy with the way the team has stayed together.
“Given the rough road that we’ve had, what we’re really satisfied with as a coaching staff is that (the players) haven’t given up,” Smith said. “We’re looking uphill, but they’ve got that grit and they’ve got that enthusiasm to turn the second half around.”