Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Oregon women’s basketball — unranked and coming off a frustrating home loss to Maryland — kept it close throughout a defensive battle against No. 1, undefeated UCLA. But that doesn’t matter. The Bruins took the 62-52 win. Call it whatever you want. It’s not a win.

“We don’t believe in moral victories,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said right away in his postgame press conference. “We’re disappointed that we lost.”

The Ducks, losers of their last two after rattling off four straight wins, weren’t in the best shape to take an exam that would’ve already been challenging. Guard Peyton Scott, who suffered an undisclosed knee injury in the midweek defeat against the Terrapins, wasn’t rostered. There was no postgame update, but Graves confirmed postgame that the injured knee was the same one that kept the guard out for the majority of the 2023-24 season. 

Graves, then, was forced to rely on transfer star Deja Kelly and partner her with a combination of Elisa Mevius and Nani Falatea throughout. Issues, though, weren’t going to be in the backcourt. 

Bruins center Lauren Betts, who averages nearly a double-double, would have to be the Ducks’ greatest concern. Oregon center Phillipina Kyei has started 16 of 23 games this season, but the 6’8’’ center was Graves’ greatest asset against UCLA’s offensive weapon. 

“I thought [Kyei] was great,” Graves said. He noted that his plan was to spell his center whenever Betts was on the bench. “She hung in there against the best player in the country, hands down.”

Betts, though, turned the ball over twice in the opening three minutes as the Ducks had reasonable defensive success — as much as you can ask for against the country’s best team. Kyei held her own with Betts, and the Bruins’ points came from elsewhere.

The issue came with the ball, where the Ducks shot just 11.1% from the field in the first quarter, and were 0-4 from beyond the arc. The shot creation was excellent, even, but 3-point efforts that missed the rim entirely from guards Sofia Bell and Elisa Mevius and wide-open layups that couldn’t find the rim were possession-killers.

“I thought that we got off to a good start, even though we didn’t score the ball,” Graves said. “We were competing, and we defended. The game wasn’t lost in the first quarter.”

Oregon couldn’t find its footing in the second quarter, either. Kyei put the first Ducks points from the field onto the board with a lay-up, but the Bruins were immediately able to find the wide-open Londynn Jones on the opposite wing for a three.

Both sides, though, went long stretches in the first half without points — including a five-minute stretch where neither put a point on the board. Oregon finished the half within reach of the Bruins, but shooting 6-35 and without a 3-point make in the half. The Bruins weren’t much better: 8-25 from the floor and with nine turnovers, but made three efforts from deep.

“Ultimately, we’ve just got to make shots overall,” Kelly said. “But for our defense to be able to allow us to hang around as long as we did…that speaks volumes.”

The Ducks came out of the half stronger than they ever looked in the first two periods. Kelly looked comfortable, finally, as she rolled into a pull-up jumper. The Ducks’ defense — their strength in the first half — forced a stop, and Kyei added two more. The Oregon center, though, picked up her third foul with less than five minutes played in the period and sat for much of the period. 

“We were excited for [the Kyei-Betts] matchup,” Kelly said. “[She] was probably one of the only ones who could match up with her in terms of size — I thought she did a really good job.”

It didn’t last. It proved too much for Oregon’s defense to withstand multi-minute scoreless runs over and over. The Bruins scored 18 points in the quarter, more than they did in either of the first-half frames, and opened up a 10-point lead heading into the final quarter. 

Facing a double-digit deficit throughout, Oregon shot 75% from the field, but never got within two possessions of their opponents and only took eight shots from the floor in the period. Kelly (14 points) and Falatea (19) made shots. It wasn’t enough.

“Overall, I think we’re in a good spot,” Kelly said. “We have a few more games that we need to win.”

Close only counts in horseshoes and ranking polls. Right now, the Ducks might not even be close.

Oregon tips off against rival Washington on Wednesday at 6:00 PM at Matthew Knight Arena.