The final score of Oregon’s heated matchup with Stanford was 63-54, identical to what the Maples Pavilion scoreboard read on March 5, 1987 — the last time the Ducks ousted the Cardinal on its home floor.
But unlike that fateful day 14 years ago, the scoreboard wasn’t in the Oregon women’s basketball team’s favor.
“They gave us an opportunity to get back in it, and we just couldn’t hit shots,” head coach Jody Runge told KSCR-radio. “That’s just part of playing on the road, and it’s part of not having won some games in awhile.”
A win would have moved the Ducks (12-8 overall, 5-5 Pacific-10 Conference) into a tie with Arizona for fourth place. Instead, Oregon — loser of five of its last six games — remains in fifth, but is now tied with California. The Golden Bears pulled away from Oregon State, winning 72-60.
Now, the Ducks face a bitter reality: Unless some upsets occur at the top of the heap, the conference title is almost out of reach.
“We know we can still do it; that’s not out of the question,” point guard Kourtney Shreve said. “But right now, we’re just trying to take one game at a time and make it easier on ourselves, instead of looking ahead at the end of the season.”
During the week building up to Thursday’s game against Stanford, the Ducks talked more about playing together as a cohesive unit, rather than focusing attention on last season’s humiliating 78-62 loss at Maples.
Oregon did play better than it has in recent games. And, at the same time, the Ducks came within minutes of staging a comeback victory of their own.
Backup point guard Alissa Edwards hit a three-pointer with less than three minutes remaining, cutting Stanford’s lead to 50-49 after the Ducks trailed by 11 early in the second half.
But Cardinal sharpshooter Lauren St. Clair stepped up and hit two three-pointers, sparking an 8-0 Stanford scoring run and putting the game out of reach.
“It was a tough loss, but the good thing is we are improving, we’re playing more as a team — that’s really helpful — and everybody’s starting to click a little better,” Shreve said. “We’re slowly improving; hopefully we’ll get things together, and Saturday will be the opportunity to get things started and get some wins again.”
Runge agreed that despite the loss, her team is on the right track to improving.
“I thought we played better,” Runge said. “We played better at Arizona State than we played at Arizona, and we played better tonight than we played at Arizona State. But it’s tough to come back out on the road again.”
Despite the loss, one Duck hit an important milestone. Forward Brianne Meharry scored her 1,001st career point when she put back a missed trey by Edwards.
Forward Angelina Wolvert led the Ducks with 11 points and seven rebounds. Wolvert, who recently recovered from an injured right knee, went down early in the game when she sprained her right ankle. She returned to the court minutes later.
Center Jenny Mowe had a strong game with nine points and eight rebounds, and forward Lindsey Dion also scored nine.
Next up, Oregon takes on the Golden Bears at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.