Once again, the Ducks showed they have all the right moves in the third quarter.
Oregon outscored visiting Vanguard 32-11 in the third quarter on Sunday en route to a 95-55 midseason exhibition win. The team has now outscored its last three teams 79-28 in the third quarter.
“I don’t think we came out completely ready to play,” freshman Morgan Yaeger said. “I think in the locker room at halftime we got a talking to. We picked it up in the second half.”
Oregon, which led 40-31 at the break, opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run. The Ducks forced eight third-quarter turnovers, leading to a 13-0 advantage in points off turnovers.
They also turned up the offensive attack, shooting 72.2 percent from the field (13 of 18).
“I was looking at our cumulative stats up until now,” head coach Kelly Graves said. “We’re outscoring teams 180-105, which is significant. … For some reason, it takes us until halftime sometimes. They did anything they wanted [in the first half]. Second half we did much better.”
The Ducks opened their largest lead of the third quarter on a jumper from Sierra Campisano to make it 70-40. Ruthy Hebard had a team-high eight points in the third quarter.
Graves said adjustments didn’t play a factor in the improvement. He said his team has played harder and with more focus after halftime.
“We need to do a better job in the first half of being ready,” Graves said. “Offensively, we’ve been very good the whole season. … Defensively is where we’ve made our biggest improvement in the second half.”
Graves, who is in his 23rd year of college coaching, said before the season that he hasn’t scheduled a midseason exhibition game before. Though it was rare, it provided the Ducks a chance to stay polished in between nonconference games on Nov. 26 and Dec. 9.
“We came out kind of soft, so that shows that we can’t take a lot of time off,” Mallory McGwire said. “We really did need this game to keep our confidence going and keep the games rolling.”
Graves agreed that the exhibition wasn’t customary.
“It was out of the ordinary. … I’m glad we did,” Graves said. “Now they can get working on finals.”
The Ducks have a break before they return to action next Friday against Portland at Matthew Knight Arena.
Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne