Oregon had five players score in double-digits, led by a double-double from Jillian Alleyne with 25 points and 17 rebounds, and the Ducks held off UC Riverside 95-81 on Tuesday.
Alleyne’s double-double was her 25th straight for the Ducks, who remain unbeaten at 9-0.
But you wouldn’t have thought that was outcome based on the team’s reaction afterwards.
“I think I was most disappointed on the defensive end,” head coach Kelly Graves said. “We didn’t play with a lot of enthusiasm or tenacity — broke down fundamentally a few times. We took a step back defensively.”
Lexi Bando finished with 17 points and Maite Cazorla added 15 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Jacinta Vandenberg tallied 11 points and eight rebounds for the Ducks.
“It was good to see [Vandenberg] be assertive offensively,” Graves said.
The Ducks, who shot a season-low 45 percent from the field, had their largest lead of 26 points with 4:23 left in the third quarter on a layup by Lexi Petersen, who finished with 10 points.
Soon after, the Highlanders came back. They immediately responded with a 12-4 run to cut the Duck lead to 72-56 after three quarters. In the fourth, the Highlanders had a 11-2 run to cut the lead to 16 points at 87-71 with 3:03 to play.
“This was good for us tonight,” Graves said. “If we would’ve had another blowout, we wouldn’t have had a teaching moment.”
Graves said he will use Wednesday to review film and dissect the defensive mishaps against UC Riverside (5-5). Coming into Tuesday, opponents averaged 60 points a game against the Ducks.
The Ducks won the rebounding battle (55-31) and had 21 assists on their 38 buckets.
In the first quarter, Oregon put together a 9-0 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Bando. The bucket gave the Ducks a 25-16 lead with 1:21 left in the first.
Kat Cooper hit a 3-pointer to start the second. The Ducks shot 54 percent from 3-point range in the first. UC Riverside closed the Duck lead to 11 points at 39-28 but buckets by Alleyne and Bando stretched the lead to 44-28.
At the break, the Ducks had a 51-36 lead.
“We just didn’t come (out) defensively,” Bando said. “We were there offensively. That’s where we really need to grow on. We need to become better defensively and show up every game on defense because defense wins games. That’s the bottom line.”
Against UC Riverside, Alleyne moved to fourth all-time on Oregon’s career scoring list, passing Lauri Landerholm, who had 1,783 points.
UC Riverside had three scorers in double-digits: Brittany Crain (21 points), Rejane Verin (21) and Clemence Lefebvre (17).
Petersen said there was an “interesting vibe” in the locker room after the game.
“It’s good to be at the point where you’re sad after a win instead of how it used to be a couple of years ago where you were kind of numb from losing,” Petersen said.
UC Riverside, who held the Ducks to 37 percent shooting in the second half, pulled to within 11 points at 92-81 with 1:09 remaining, but a buckets from Cazorla and Petersen pushed the lead back to 15.
The Ducks return to action Thursday against Portland State in a 6 p.m. tipoff.
Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne
