Trailing by eight points at halftime to visiting Colorado, Oregon coach Paul Westhead didn’t deliver an impassioned halftime speech or make any drastic schematic adjustments. Instead, Westhead implored his team to stay the course and to focus on capitalizing on available opportunities. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4307&SPID=236&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205374249&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
“I said that we had some good fast-break opportunities that they were giving us, we didn’t cash in on them,” Westhead said. “I felt it was a deceptive eight-point deficit. I told them I felt good about the game. I wasn’t critical, I was more saying it’s been sitting there for you, you just have to go out and do it.”
In outscoring the Buffaloes 41-28 in the second period, Oregon heeded Westhead’s advice. The Ducks (13-10, 5-6 Pac-12) went on a 13-0 run to begin the second half and topped Colorado 67-62 Saturday afternoon at Matthew Knight Arena. @@http://pac-12.org/SPORTS/BasketballW/Standings.aspx@@
The second-half comeback was sprung by a strong all-around effort. Oregon’s defense limited the Buffaloes (15-7, 4-7 Pac-12) to only 33 percent shooting from the field (20 percent from three-point range) in the second half, while the Ducks’ offense scored 41 points during that time. @@http://www.goducks.com/downloads2/445887.htm?ATCLID=205374249&SPSID=4307&SPID=236&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
In her third game back from a fractured thumb, Oregon forward Amanda Johnson excelled, particularly in the decisive second half. Johnson scored 23 of her game-high 26 points and was a perfect 10 of 10 from the free throw line after halftime.
“My guess was that Amanda Johnson needed three games to be back,” Westhead said. “Even in the past game, she was a little off-center. She’s good enough that you don’t notice it, but she was a little off-center, but now she’s back, in time.”
Johnson’s efficient effort keyed a nearly perfect second-half performance from the free-throw line. The Ducks, who were shooting 71 percent from the line entering play, made 21 of 22 free throws in the second half (28 of 32 for the game), thwarting several late Colorado pushes in the process.
“Those are shots you have to make,” Duck forward Jasmin Holliday said. “If we’re shooting over 80 percent, that’s one of our goals and that’s good for us, obviously it helped us win.”
Oregon’s free-throw shooting helped counter Colorado’s aggressive defense. The Ducks made the Buffaloes pay for committing 20 team fouls (to Oregon’s 10).
“Like I said, they are really aggressive and I think we used that to our advantage when we stared to drive because they would send us to the foul line,” Johnson said. “I know for me, my shots weren’t necessarily falling. Being able to get to the line and get some momentum rolling felt good.”
Standings watch 
After the game, Westhead ribbed his team about the importance of their just-completed home series sweep. Oregon defeated Utah on Thursday and, with the Colorado win, moves to seventh in the Pac-12 standings. @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=236&SPSID=4304@@
“I was kind of kidding them, I said if you lost this weekend you could have ridden out the season and said, ‘OK, when’s practice?’” Westhead said. “But now we’ve just popped right up and could make you wonder or worry or be attentive. And hopefully that will make you play better. That’s what our hope is.”
Oregon posts the Pac-12 standings in its locker room to remind the team of the importance of the team’s upcoming games.
“They’ll print out the standings and they’ll be up in the locker room just to let us know where things are at,” Johnson said. “In the past I don’t know if that would have been helpful, but because of the similar records of a couple of teams and everyone in the middle is kind of compacted, I think it has been helpful to gauge how important the games are coming up.
“We have an opportunity to really move ourselves forward in the standings.”