No. 3 Oregon women’s basketball hosts No. 9 Oregon State for the top-10 Civil War series-opener in front of a sold-out Matthew Knight Arena Friday night at 6 p.m. before traveling to Corvallis Monday night to face the Beavers again.
“We’re excited to have them down here first off. We’ve been working on them all week,” senior Oti Gildon said. “I know that I’m going to have to play to the best of my abilities, knowing I only have three more [home games] left.”
In the Pac-12, the Ducks sit at the top of standings with an undefeated 12-0 conference record followed by the Beavers who boast a 10-2 record, including last weekend’s upset by No. 11 Stanford, which the Ducks beat by 40 points.
Further, both Oregon’s junior Sabrina Ionescu and Oregon State’s redshirt sophomore guard Destiny Slocum have been named to the Nancy Lieberman national point guard of the year short list, and lead their respective teams in points and assists. Oregon’s Ionescu averages 19.3 points and 8.2 assists compared to Slocum’s 16.9 and 5.
Meanwhile, Oregon State starting junior guard Mikayla Pivec averages 8.9 rebounds a game compared to Ruthy Hebard’s nine, and is the third-ranked most accurate field-goal shooter in the conference at 54 percent behind Hebard’s 71 percent.
Last season, No. 18 Oregon State upset No. 7 Oregon in the series opener last season in Corvallis. With a 3-pointer from Ionescu, the Ducks forced overtime in the first meeting, but fell 85-79.
Two days later behind a career-high 35 points Ionescu and another 24 from Hebard, the Ducks’ defense secured a 75-63 victory over the Beavers to end Oregon State’s 14-game win streak in the series.
“They’ve had the better of us for quite a while, so in terms of it being even, we’ve got some work to do, and that’s what we hope to get turned around on Friday night,” Graves said. “The fact that both teams are in the top-10 — I think going to be perennial top-10 kind of teams — I think this has a chance to shape up to something special.”
Oregon State has since graduated senior forward Marie Gülich, who was a big offensive threat in the post, scoring 28 and 16 in the series last year. Oregon’s then-starting senior guard Lexi Bando sat out both meetings due to a leg injury. This year, Oregon will have Bando-replacement and elite 3-point shooter Erin Boley.
In the NCAA tournament, a six-seeded Oregon State fought to the Elite Eight, falling in a 76-43 loss to Louisville in the same round the two-seeded Ducks fell.
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