Enough middle-of-the-road teams.
No more California, no more Oregon State.
The Ducks want Stanford. And come 7 p.m. Saturday night, they shall have it.
“I’m very excited to play Stanford,” forward Angelina Wolvert said. “I’m very excited because we were ranked second. I stated that at the beginning of the year when I found out we were ranked second in the [Pacific-10 Conference] behind them. It matters a great deal to me.
“I’m very upset about it and I want to go out and kick their butt.”
Oregon (9-3 overall, 2-0 Pac-10) showed it was ready to host the No. 24 Cardinal (7-6, 1-2) by walloping California, 86-56, in front of 4,180 at McArthur Court Thursday night.
Guard Jamie Craighead led the Ducks to a 46-26 first-half lead by draining 4 of 5 three-pointers. Amidst a second-half display of so-so execution and overzealous officiating, the Golden Bears (4-9, 0-3) never recovered.
The loss was California’s worst since an 86-54 setback to UCLA in 1998.
“We intended to go inside early because we wanted to get their post in foul trouble,” said Craighead, who finished with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting. “They weren’t really guarding us outside, and when we started hitting some they weren’t finding us.
“We’re trying to take every game one at a time. Cal was the next team on the schedule; we knew they were going to be a good team, so we tried to stop them early and make it apparent that we were going to beat them.”
While Oregon was busy romping the Bears, Stanford — now the next team on the list — fell on its face in Corvallis, losing to Oregon State 81-65.
Another Duck win on Saturday would knock the Cardinal down to 1-3 in conference play; not a promising start if Stanford plans on living up to its preseason billing.
“Their loss at Oregon State is just going to be fire under their butt,” Wolvert said. “They’re going to want to come out and win. You don’t go on a road trip and be ranked first or second in the Pac-10 and lose one of them.
“They’re definitely going to come in here and look to beat us. Especially because we’re ranked second in the Pac-10.”
Oregon must rebound better if it is to get the best of Stanford.
California outrebounded the Ducks 32-26 overall, 16-9 on the offensive glass. However, the Bears squandered several second-chance points as they shot just 35.3 percent from the field.
The Cardinal, which boasts 6-foot-6 center Carolyn Moos and sharp-shooter Lauren St. Clair, won’t waste such opportunities.
But Oregon helped itself by building an early lead against California. Duck head coach Jody Runge was able to rest her starting lineup, while Stanford’s starting five ran out of gas against Oregon State.
“I think my big thing in the second half was just to have our subs maintain the margin,” Runge said. “They’ve been working very hard, but they still have a few jitters. Just to have them get some quality minutes and keep the margin was important.”
Wolvert finished with a game-high 16 points against Cal, and point guard Kourtney Shreve turned in a solid performance with 11 points and five assists. Forward Brianne Meharry also scored 11 points.
Forward Lindsey Dion and center Jenny Mowe both came up big for the Ducks. Dion recorded nine points along with five assists, while Mowe scored eight points and blocked five shots.
“I think we are very ready for [the Stanford] game,” Wolvert said. “We took care of California tonight and that was our first step. Now a lot of us are just focused. I know this is my last time I play Stanford at home.
“I have a huge problem with being ranked second behind them and our whole team wants to come out and prove ourselves, and that’s all that we’re focused on. We want to show people that you don’t rank us second after you win two Pac-10 titles.”