Kate Fiso (15 points on 7/11 shooting and 10 assists) quarterbacked an efficient offense in a dominant 89-59 victory over the Penn State Lady Lions (7-14, 0-10 Big Ten), which snapped a short skid for Oregon women’s basketball (15-7, 3-6 Big Ten). It never appeared in doubt, but it took the Ducks until the third quarter to finally use a 24-5 seven-minute stretch to subdue the Lady Lions. 

“I thought (Katie) was fantastic today,” head coach Kelly Graves said. “She had a couple turnovers, but honestly I thought this was one of her better games. Early in the game, you could see, she was consciously trying to get others involved.”

Others included forward Sarah Rambus, whose career-high 20-point performance fueled an impressive Oregon offense against Penn State. 

Each squad came into Saturday’s matinee aiming to curb tough losing streaks, with the Lady Lions without a victory in nine conference games heading into Sunday and the Ducks winless over the previous four. 

“We really needed that one, just to kind of stop the bleeding a little bit,” Graves said. 

Penn State opened on the front foot, hitting its first three shots and forcing two early Oregon turnovers, jumping out to a quick 7-0 lead. The Ducks didn’t even attempt a field goal during that stretch. 

Oregon scored its first points, a Rambus (20 points on 9/13 shooting) layup, just over four minutes into the contest after missing its first eight attempts. After hitting the next three shots, the Ducks were back within four points and gaining momentum through a few stops on defense. 

By the end of the first, Oregon clawed back by forcing the action inside offensively. In the last minute of the period, it was three Fiso isolations that created the buckets which would give the Ducks their first lead of the game. 

“That’s where I have an advantage over some teams,” Fiso said. “Obviously, I can score and get downhill, but once I get stopped I also have great teammates that can get those passes and hit those shots.”

Each time, Fiso took her defender to the elbow and shook them, but once she scored on her own, then she dished to Mia Jacobs for an easy lay-in and then she kicked it back out to Rambus for the last shot of the quarter that put the Ducks up 16-12. 

“I thought defensively, we made some mistakes (in the first quarter),” Graves said. “It was a rough start, I don’t think it was anything they did or we did, we just didn’t focus.”

The shots started falling for both teams in the second, but about halfway through the frame, Avary Cain (9 points on 3/4 shooting from three) sank two triples to give the Ducks the momentum. Fiso and Rambus continued to dominate in the paint, especially as the two began running more pick-and-rolls in the period. 

Oregon found ways to keep the Lady Lions at arm’s length throughout the second, especially as Rambus was able to get anything she wanted going in the paint and tallied 12 first half points on 5/7 shooting. The Ducks led 40-34 at the end of the half. 

Oregon opened the scoring in the third by continuing its onslaught in the paint, finding Ari Long (11 points, 3 steals) and Ehis Etute (9 points, 11 rebounds) on cuts for baskets at the rim. Then, the Ducks hit three-straight from beyond the arc. Mia Jacobs (10 points on 4/6 shooting, 5 rebounds) pulled two from the elbows and an Etute drive-and-kick set up Long with acres of space who found the bottom of the net for her only  three of the afternoon. 

“It helped that Ehis (Etute) was back in the game and she made a couple of nice plays,” Graves said about the stretch. “Then we started to see the ball go through from range and it’s just one of those things that snowballs a little bit in a positive way.”

The 9-3 stretch put them on top by 13, the Ducks biggest lead at that time, and would set them up to slow the game down and dominate the final 15 minutes of the game. Oregon went up 18, then 24 and then 29 by the end of the third quarter; 74-45. 

Over the final seven minutes of the third, the Ducks outscored the Lions 24-5, and the scoring came from everywhere. No Oregon player had more than eight points in the quarter (Jacobs had that many), and it shot 13/18 from the field and 4/6 from deep. 

Throughout the second half overall, Oregon outscored Penn State 49-25, which came after a continuous effort to collapse the Lady Lions’ defense by scoring in the paint and then converting on the 3-point opportunities that came with it. 

Fiso’s double-double helped facilitate a remarkably clean game and the team found itself trusting the sure-hand of Rambus around the basket, who led in her own way with her interior scoring and defense. 

The Ducks rebounded well, shot well and took care of the ball; all hallmarks of a dominant win if combined with a sufficient amount of defense. Oregon travels east to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Wednesday evening with the hope of turning this losing skid into a winning streak.