Just enough continues to be enough for Oregon women’s basketball in March.

Six-foot forward Ehis Etute was just tall enough to sky for a fourth-quarter chasedown block of Maryland All-Big Ten forward Oluchi Okanawa. Sofia Bell made just enough 3-pointers (two) and sunk one with just over two minutes left in the game. Katie Fiso turned a 0-4 first half into a 14-point second, and the Ducks stifled the Terrapins’ paint dominance just enough after the first quarter to the tune of a second 2026 Big Ten Tournament win.

Eleventh-seeded Oregon’s best, it turns out, is just enough to have it in the Big Ten quarterfinals after a 73-68 upset win over the sixth-seeded Terrapins.

“For me, it’s old hat,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said. “This is who they are.”

Fiso’s second-half explosion kept the Ducks in a game where they by-and-large lost the battle in the paint. The moments where they weren’t flashed: Etute (20 points, 10 rebounds) forced a foul deep into the fourth quarter and pushed her team back into the lead with ensuing free throws; minutes later, Fiso (14 points, 5 assists) reverse-fed Etute for a layup under the basket. Every basket was just enough to survive and advance. Even Okanawa’s 27-point effort was just too little.

“I think we’re known as the cardiac team,” Avary Cain, who delivered the dagger 3-pointer with single digits on the clock, said. “But I think we came out this game guns blazing — we’re saying this whole tournament that we have to treat this game like it’s our last.”

A returning Mia Jacobs’ (8 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists) effort, combined with four first-quarter Maryland turnovers, could’ve been enough to buoy the Ducks early on. Instead, Maryland tag-teamed turnover points with paint dominance (20 of 21 first-quarter points came inside) in order to race to a 21-15 lead at the end of the period. Terrapins guard Addi Mack was responsible for half those giveaways, but she turned an Oregon inbound into a steal and layup to expand her team’s lead to 4 points midway through the period.

Struggles underneath the hoop, where the undersized Etute is the Ducks’ main force, have been a season-long battle. In the Ducks’ Jan. 31 win over the then-No. 14 Terrapins in College Park, Maryland, Etute dominated with 26 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. In Indianapolis, she surged to 10 boards, including five in the fourth quarter.

A 13-2 second-quarter run which saw the Terrapins held scoreless for over three minutes was fueled by wins in the paint and on the break.

Early in the quarter, Etute skied for a win in the defensive paint over forward Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu and sent the ball down the court. Guard Ari Long (8 points, 2 assists) dished to Cain, who drained another 3-pointer from the same corner; this time, she drew a foul, too, and converted from the line to pull the Ducks level. Minutes later, Cain (13 points, 3-3 3-pointers) drove through the paint for another and-1 lay — this time to give Oregon its first lead since less than three minutes into the game.

Four first-half 3-pointers (two from Cain and one each from Jacobs and Bell) shooting 36% and a defense which held the Terrapins to 4 second-quarter paint points, kept the Ducks in the game and down just a point at the half despite ending the period on 1-9 shooting and losing the rebound battle 22-15. Without those scores inside, the higher seed struggled to put points on the board and finished the night shooting 1-15 from 3-point range.

“We won the game on the defensive end, to be honest with you,” Graves said. “They’re such a great offensive team, and in both games we held them in the 60s.”

A 10-point run out of the halftime break, eight of which were Fiso’s after she went scoreless in the first half, forced a Maryland timeout and put the Terrapins on their heels.

The timeout didn’t stop the Ducks’ sophomore star. She hit double-digits out of the timeout and drew a foul a few possessions later, but picked up her own third personal foul with 4:55 left in the third quarter and stayed in the game until the 1:14 mark in the period without committing her fourth.

“Obviously, I started the game off a little cold,” Fiso said. “Shots weren’t falling, but I was trying to do the other things, like helping my teammates, encouraging them. Then, in the second half, I started to get more downhill, started to be more aggressive, pushing in transition — just going back to the things I’m good at.”

The defense was doing more than enough. Oregon held Maryland to three fourth-quarter points until the 3:26 mark in the period. A Fiso-to-Etute jumper bounced on the rim and fell in. A 21-11 fourth quarter point margin was just enough.

Despite Etute and Long both sitting on four personal fouls, the former made crucial defensive play after crucial defensive play in the final minutes. The dagger came from an open Cain — her third 3-pointer of the night with 4.4 seconds left — and the Ducks were up for good.

“Honestly, it still hasn’t kicked in yet,” Cain said of her last-second basket. “I think it’s a testament to Katie. Everybody’s looking at her at the end of the clock, so it’s just about staying ready.”

The last question, to Graves, led him to put Fiso in a category with legendary guards Courtney Vandersloot and Sabrina Ionescu.

“She’s young, just a sophomore, but she commands the huddle. She commands practice,” Graves said. “There’s no question who our alpha is.”

Oregon advances to face third-seeded Michigan tomorrow.