Head coach Paul Westhead normally provides an opening statement before taking questions after Oregon women’s basketball games. Following Saturday night’s game, Westhead’s statement was two words and terse.
“I’m available,” he said.
Players were unavailable for comment, having headed for the bus shortly after the game. No doubt they felt the disappointment that Westhead wore so prominently on his face.
Oregon turned a 36-16 halftime lead over the last-place Oregon State Beavers into a 61-59 loss Saturday night at Gill Coliseum. The 16 points represented the best half defensively the Ducks had turned in all season. The 45 second-half points represented the Beavers’ best scoring output in any half this season.
What did we learn from this game? Without Nia Jackson, who missed her fourth straight game after suffering injuries to both knees against Washington, Oregon is the worst team in the Pacific-10 Conference. Four games remain before a likely first-round matchup in the Pac-10 tournament, and the 12-13 Ducks (3-11 Pac-10) will probably be heavy underdogs in all five.
Once both teams emerged from the locker room to start the second half, we received more questions than answers. It was inevitable that the Beavers — who shot 20.7 percent from the field and made just one of 13 three-pointers in the first half — would hit some baskets, but rattling off 13 straight points?
Oregon, once again, was slow to react. The press defense worked beautifully over the final five minutes of the first half, frustrating Oregon State into going every which way but forward with the basketball. In the second half, that pressure was nonexistent.
The zone defense that forced the Beavers into such a shooting slump early on softened up in a hurry. Oregon State drove to the basket seemingly at will, finishing the game with 32 points in the paint to Oregon’s eight. The Ducks grew more foul-prone as the Beavers kept attacking; Oregon State shot 26 free throws (making just 13) and committed eight fouls to Oregon’s 23.
Offensively, the Ducks shot just 24.1 percent from the floor (7 of 29) and made three of 12 attempted three-pointers. Shot selection was weaker in the second half and hampered by poor ball movement. Using Tatianna Thomas out of position at point guard after Ariel Thomas accrued four fouls quickly only exacerbated matters.
Perhaps the most surprising development resulting from the Civil War was the disparity in confidence between the two teams.
Oregon State, the program resurrected from near death by head coach Scott Rueck, the program that returned just two players and hosted walk-on tryouts, never doubted its ability to beat the Ducks. Forwards El Sara Greer and Earlysia Marchbanks spoke after the game about Oregon’s propensity for allowing comebacks, slacking on defense and weakness on the glass. Westhead’s system tries to physically grind down opponents over the course of a game; that simply did not occur to the Beavers.
“My quick analysis would be: We struggled … and in fact at times stopped scoring,” Westhead said.
For long stretches in the second half, the Ducks stopped scoring — and rebounding, and pressing and getting out to open players. Oregon State picked them apart, and Oregon had no answers.
Westhead’s team has now lost seven straight games in each of his first two seasons. The Ducks are likely to lose eight straight games for the first time since 1993, and likely a few more. What do they have to play for?
Westhead spoke early in the week of the emotionally charged nature of a rivalry game, and how it could help that losing streak come to an end. The rivalry aspect clearly mattered to Rueck and the Beavers, who came out looking like a team with something to prove.
“We knew they were going to come out 10 times as hard because it’s a rivalry,” Marchbanks said, “and 10 times harder than that to prove they can win without (Jackson).”
Someone forgot to pass those emotions along to the Ducks, who came out hard for roughly 15 minutes in a 40-minute game.
This team is still young, still flawed and still could use Jackson. The Ducks’ response in the coming days may show how far under Westhead they have really come.
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