The Oregon Ducks fell to the No. 16 Utah Utes, dropping Oregon to just 2-6 in conference play. This game came with the Ducks missing the services of Grace VanSlooten, the team’s leading scorer. VanSlooten’s absence marked the first time this season that Oregon has played a game without one of its big three — VanSlooten, Chance Gray and Phillipina Kyei.
The Ducks were unable to rely on anyone outside of Gray and Kyei on offense the entire game, with the third leading scorer coming in a three-way tie with just three points. Against an offense as prolific as Utah’s, that type of performance was never going to cut it.
Holding the nation’s seventh best offense, and the Pac-12’s best, to just 58 points is as good of an outcome as Oregon could have hoped for. Unfortunately, scoring just 48 points of their own caused the Ducks to still lose by ten.
“This is one of the leading scoring teams in the country, best 3-point shooting team in the country, and we held them to 58 points,” Kelly Graves, head coach of the Ducks, said. “Without Sofia [Bell], without Grace, we just don’t have a lot of options to score ourselves.”
Bell, who left the game in the third quarter with an injury, is an excellent perimeter defender and the team’s fourth option on offense on most nights. However, with VanSlooten out, Bell scored just two points in her 19 minutes before leaving the game. Kyei and Gray led the team with 19 and 18 points respectively. The rest of the offense totaled just 11 points total.
Kyei scored all 19 of her points in the first three quarters. The Utes were able to limit her effectiveness in the final quarter by bringing double-teams almost every time Kyei touched the ball.
“[Kyei] is showing game in and game out that she’s one of the best centers in the country,” Graves said about Kyei’s performance. “I’m just really proud of her growth on the court, off the court.”
The offense was taken over by Gray in the final quarter, as she scored nine of her points in that frame. However, the offense was able to muster just 12 points total, allowing Utah to slam the door shut on the Ducks. In a game where Gray was relied on for heavy minutes, she took on more of an off-ball approach on many possessions throughout the game to not expend all of her energy too quickly.
“I feel like one of my strengths is being able to play on the ball and off the ball,” Gray said. “[Graves] just gets me breaks so I’m not just zigzagging up the floor the whole time.”
Oregon led for most of the game, not allowing the Utes to take a lead until more than half of the third quarter had already passed. Unfortunately, when the high-powered Utah offense finally was able to get some momentum on their side, the Ducks were unable to rise to the level of their opponent on that side of the ball. The loss marked the third time in Pac-12 conference play that Oregon was unable to score 50 points, with all three coming in losses.
Throughout the rest of the season, the Ducks will need scoring from other sources to have a chance to make a run in the Pac-12 Tournament. This model of the trio of VanSlooten, Gray and Kyei being relied on for almost all of the offense is an unsustainable model for success, and seems to be already catching up to Oregon.
