Take two.
In its first exhibition game together last Friday, the women’s basketball team and new head coach Bev Smith came out a little shaky, particularly on defense, in a 83-77 win.
Eighty-three points is impressive, especially with five new faces on the floor, but the Ducks know their defense must improve in order to be successful this year.
With their second and final exhibition game at 7 p.m. today against Western Oregon, the Ducks will have a chance to show that they are more than just a one-headed beast.
“We felt we didn’t work as hard as we could on defense,” said junior guard Shaquala Williams, who paced the Ducks with 22 points in the exhibition opener. “We were kind of lazy in a lot of situations. That’s more effort than anything.”
The 77 points Oregon allowed to KSC Szekszard, a traveling all-star team from Hungary, was not a huge surprise to Smith, but she said she wasn’t pleased with it, either.
“The defense has suffered, and I take responsibility for that,” the first-year coach said. “But we’ll get after it.”
And what about Western Oregon, the Division II school from Monmouth?
“Our coaches want us to respect them like anyone else,” Williams said.
In fact, this week the Ducks watched game tape of the Wolves, a team that finished 15-12 overall last season.
With a quick, guard-heavy lineup, Oregon wants to force its opponents to make mistakes with the ball.
“Our coach’s whole goal is to impose yourself more on your opponent,” Williams said. “We want to get more in the mode of pressuring them, taking away passing lanes and really making it difficult for them to run their offense.”
With six freshmen on the team, the Ducks are having to quickly adjust to each other, in addition to a new system and a new coach.
“Everyone is excited about the change, and I think we all gel really good,” freshman Amy Parrish said.
Parrish was one of Oregon’s biggest surprises in the first exhibition game, scoring 11 points and grabbing six rebounds in 15 minutes of action.
“It wasn’t bad, but there are still a lot of things I could have done better,” the Hanford, Calif., native said of her Oregon debut. “Mainly, just keeping our space on offense, and setting good screens. On defense, we need to make sure we talk and play more aggressive.
“That’s one of the things we stress is to play 100 percent defense as a team, and defense will create offense for us,” she said.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at McArthur Court.