Led by the trio of Lexi Petersen, Maite Cazorla, and Jillian Alleyne, the Ducks continued to do what they have done all season: win.
On Saturday afternoon, those three players combined for 56 of Oregon’s 93 points as they improved to 8-0 on the season, with a 93-52 demolition of Portland at Matthew Knight Arena.
“All in all pretty good effort,” head coach Kelly Graves said after the game.
Hard to argue with that. The Ducks shot 56 percent from the field and 68 percent (13-19) from downtown, all while holding Portland to 40 percent shooting and forcing 19 turnovers.
The final score indicates the game was a blowout, but Portland closed the deficit to single digits several times in the second quarter. Pilots center Sara Zaragoza scored eight of her team high 14 points in the second as Oregon’s inside defense suffered several lapses that kept the door open for Portland.
“In the first half we let her do what she wanted,” Jillian Alleyne said of Zaragoza’s play in the first half. “In the second half we adjusted and made sure that we weren’t going to let her as many looks at the basket.”
“The adjustments (we made) were just doubling down on her, and making sure we try and force her into turnovers.”
Zaragoza scored six more points in the third quarter but Oregon had an answer whenever Portland threatened.
Lexi Petersen scored 12 of her game-high 23 points in the third quarter, including a stretch in which she scored eight straight with back-to-back threes to balloon Oregon’s lead to 30, effectively putting the game away.
“I try to let the game just flow to me,” Petersen said. “I’ve had trouble with that in the past of not asserting myself as much when I get on a roll. I think in cases like that I just kind of go with the flow and if I’m open, shoot it.”
Petersen was not alone in showing off her stroke. Freshman Maite Cazorla tallied 18 points and was 4-5 from beyond the arc and racked up a team high 6 assists. Also keeping pace was Lexi Bando who was 3-4 from downtown and finished with 11 points.
All in all 10 Ducks scored tonight, a number that Graves was very pleased with.
“That’s great, as long as we can spread it out like that,” Graves said. “Jill (Alleyne) didn’t have a huge night by her standards and still we were able to put up as many points as we did, so that’s a good sign.”
Alleyne’s line, 15 points and 11 boards, could have been even more impressive as she recorded her 24th straight double-double midway through the 2nd quarter, but the team simply didn’t need her to do everything tonight.
Oregon gets back to work on Tuesday, when it takes on UC Riverside at Matthew Knight Arena. Tip-off is at 5 pm.
The Ducks have three more games until they begin Pac-12 play at UCLA on Jan. 2.
Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @g_amorris