Despite Oregon’s recent success, the Ducks’ Wednesday matinee game was very much up for grabs until the closing seconds.
In the midst of its hottest stretch of the season, the No. 19 Oregon women’s basketball team was able to close out Utah 70-66 in Matthew Knight Arena Wednesday afternoon thanks to two clutch 3’s from Sydney Parrish in the game’s final moments. The Ducks extended their winning streak to five games.
Parrish was efficient in her 29 minutes of play, finishing the game with 13 points while shooting 3-of-6 from 3.
“I think the teams were feeling it out,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said. “Two good teams that should be, I don’t know where Utah falls, but they should be an NCAA tournament team.”
Nyara Sabally scored at will whenever she got the ball down low, she ended the contest as the leading scorer for Oregon with 15 points on 7-of-8 from the field.
Oregon came into the matchup riding a four-game winning streak after escaping with a 68-61 win against the Washington Huskies on Friday. Utah meanwhile found itself at the end of a three-game road trip where they last beat the Arizona State Sun Devils 72-63.
Both programs started the matinee matchup sloppily as neither could find the basket within the first two minutes of play,
Each went on streaks during the first half, but the scoring was back and forth throughout. The Utes led the Ducks at half 29-28 after some inconsistent shooting from both sides as both teams shot below 40% from the field. Te-Hina PaoPao led the Ducks in scoring at the break with 11.
Utah entered the game averaging 83 points per outing and boasted a 10-2 record when leading at the half.
Though her statline in the box score ended poorly, PaoPao led the way for the Ducks in the first half as she racked up 13 points to go along with 5 rebounds and 5 assists.
The Utes lead the Pac-12 in assist-to-turnover ratio but the Ducks were able to steady the Utes ball movement as they turned it over 12 times and racked up only eight assists. Oregon took advantage of those turnovers, tallying 15 points off of them.
The Ducks, who lead the conference in 3-point shooting percentage, shot a mere 5-of-23 from deep, which proved to be a factor down the stretch as the Utes were able to find their way back into the game being down just one basket with a minute remaining.
Team depth was also key for Utah in the matchup as their bench scored 25 points to Oregon’s 12.
Seven lead changes proved the game was spirited at every moment, both squads ended with very similar results in team statistics.
“We struggled a couple of times and we got beat, but I think we figured it out towards the end of the game.” Parish said after the win.
Utah guard and Pac-12 freshman of the week Gianna Kneepkens continued to find her shot as she scored in double figures (17) for the fourth game in a row.
The Ducks showed that they can win in many ways after shooting uncharacteristically from deep.
Oregon looks to continue their undefeated streak this weekend against two formidable opponents in UCLA and USC. The Ducks host the UCLA Bruins at 8 p.m. PST on Friday at Matthew Knight Arena.
