Last Thursday, Oregon suffered its first loss of the season against Fresno State on the road. On Sunday, the Ducks returned to Matthew Knight Arena and righted the ship with an 88-78 victory over Portland at home.@@schedule: http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=236&SPSID=4304@@
“It feels good to get a win before midterms (and) tests,” said Oregon head coach Paul Westhead.@@CE@@ “It’s always good to put a smile on your face and have a win.”
Oregon used yet another strong outing from senior forward Amanda Johnson@@stats roster@@ (23 points, 13 rebounds)@@stats: http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=236&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205342348@@ and solid scoring from Jasmin Holliday@@stats roster@@ (20 points, 5 rebounds, 8-of-11 shooting)@@see previous@@ to beat the Pilots. The effort was Johnson’s sixth double-double this season.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=236&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205342348@@ Sophomore forward Danielle Love added 16 points and career highs of 10 boards and five assists.@@see stats@@
“I would say scoring-wise I’ve been coming up a little bit,” Love said. “I’ve gotten a few career highs the past few games. But rebounds is what I personally wasn’t happy with. And the coaches were like, ‘We need more rebounds out of you.’ So that was my focus going into today and I finally got it.”
Oregon held Portland to 41 percent@@changed from 34 (downloadable stats: http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=236&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205342348@@ shooting but was burned from deep, allowing 15 three-pointers, including eight in the first half.@@see previous@@ The Pilots hit more three-pointers than two-pointers (14)@@see previous@@ in the contest. The Ducks were hot from three-point range as well, sinking 12 of 31 attempts in the game.@@see previous@@
“It’s either they’re real good shooters, or we’re not defending the outside shot well,” Westhead said. “That kept them back in the game. It’s not like they cut us up inside. They got a couple inside baskets. But they would come down and find some perimeter openings.”
Oregon also did a solid job working the inside, constantly feeding the ball to Johnson and hitting the offensive boards hard. The Ducks collected 18 offensive rebounds@@see previous@@ and capitalized on many second-chance opportunities.
“We had two guards, Ariel Thomas and Nia Jackson,@@both on stats roster@@ in the second half between them had seven offensive rebounds,” said Westhead. “That doesn’t happen much. And the way that game was going we needed every one of them. Sometimes you find different ways to win, but that’s an interesting one, to have your point guards, the smallest players on the team, getting offensive rebounds.”
Oregon did a great job of limiting the Pilot’s primary offensive weapon, senior forward Natalie Day.@@stats roster, see previous@@ Day was held to 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting.@@see previous@@
“I think trying to maintain the energy, that’s the hard part about (defense),” said Holliday. “Just making sure we’re getting back on defense, running the lanes hard, all that kind of stuff hard. We have to mentally remind ourselves to do that hard and make sure we’re picking it up.”
Westhead is now 6-0 against the West Coast Conference@@not sure how to check this@@ during his tenure with the program and 3-0 against the Pilots.@@checked the schedules@@
“I think we’re a team that’s playing decent. We’re okay,” said Westhead. “We’re 7-1 and I told our players that, you know, the competition level in some few weeks is going to go up. So they better be prepared for the better play. So hopefully this is a learning process.”