Oregon women’s basketball turned up the defensive pressure late in the game. Despite being down 44-62, the Ducks kept fighting. They were able to string together a small 6-0 run to show signs of life after trailing since the opening minutes of the game.
During the run, Oregon forced four Baylor turnovers. However, the Bears were able to respond with an 8-0 run of their own. The promising stretch by the Oregon offense was shut down by the Baylor defense as the Ducks were held to just one point in the final four minutes of the game in the 71-51 loss.
Excellent defense from the Bears was the story of the early game for Oregon. Turnovers continued to plague the Ducks as they turned the ball over four times in the first five minutes of the game as Baylor jumped out to a 13-4 lead, which included an 8-0 run.
Oregon was able to close the gap to three, but the fastbreak scoring of the Bears was too much. Baylor utilized transition opportunities off of missed shots and turnovers to have eight fastbreak points in the first quarter on its way to a 21-12 lead.
The zone defense of the Ducks was employed early and often in the game. It caused some problems for the Bears, however, Baylor was able to move the ball to great effect as 12 of the first 14 made shots for the Bears came off of assists.
Baylor cleaned up its own mistakes, grabbing seven offensive rebounds in the first half. The Bears also forced 11 Oregon turnovers on their way to a massive shot attempt advantage which saw Baylor shoot 16 more shots than the Ducks in the first half alone. The Bears led 37-24 going into halftime.
Despite the massive shot attempt difference between the two teams, the Oregon defense was able to limit the prolific offense of Baylor. The Ducks were able to hold Baylor to 40% from the field through the first three quarters.
Unfortunately for Oregon, the turnovers never got better throughout the game. The Ducks turned the ball over 16 times through the end of the third quarter, which gave the Bears plenty of extra opportunities to overcome their poor shooting. Baylor led Oregon 54-38 at the end of the third.
The fourth quarter proved to be more of the same for the Ducks. They were unable to make too much traction in narrowing the Baylor lead.
Oregon ended the game with a season-worst 20 turnovers. The three-point struggles also continued, although on lower volume, as the Ducks made just one of their eight attempts from deep. Oregon was led in scoring by Phillipina Kyei, who scored 15 points and added 12 rebounds to record her fifth double-double of the season.
Baylor took advantage of 19 offensive rebounds to overcome poor shooting percentages in the massive win. The Bears were led by the 18 points of Darianna Littlepage-Bugg. Prior to this game, the lowest scoring output from Baylor was 81 points and their offense was ranked sixth in the nation in points per game. Oregon held the Bears to 71 points in the loss.
