Three ball, corner pocket.
Swish.
Roar.
Now repeat … seven times.
Heading into Thursday night’s Pacific-10 Conference women’s basketball matchup, first-year California head coach Caren Horstmeyer stressed to her team that if Oregon was going to win, it would have to do it from behind the arc.
Whoops. Wrong strategy, coach.
The No. 20 Ducks (9-3 overall, 2-0 Pac-10) opened the game early with the long ball, and did not look back en route to a 86-56 victory that certainly pleased the 4,180 fans at McArthur Court.
In the span of five minutes in the first half, the Ducks sank four three-pointers, three of which came at the hands of junior Jamie Craighead, who torched the Bears for 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the opening session. The Ducks drained a season-high seven threes overall.
“We said that if they were going to beat us, they’d have to do it from the three-point line, but Jamie Craighead is not going to shoot threes,” Horstmeyer said. “She had five [attempts] in the first half. So we did not stay with our game plan whatsoever.”
Although Craighead does not consider herself one of Oregon’s primary offensive weapons, she has proved to be just that so far this season. She is the Pac-10’s top three-point shooter at nearly 46 percent, and has already surpassed her total from last year (32 this season compared to 30 last year.)
“I’m not saying that I’m not someone we can go to,” said Craighead, who had 14 points. “There’s just going to be nights when different players step up and do that.”
It seems, though, that Craighead has earned respect around the league.
“Craighead is a very, very good three-point shooter,” Horstmeyer said. “You just don’t give her threes.”
Cal’s zone defense clogged up the middle in the first half, preventing the Ducks from getting the ball in the post to Angelina Wolvert and Jenny Mowe, who took a combined seven shots in the first period, compared to the team’s eight three-point attempts.
Criaghead’s final bucket of the game came with 1:20 remaining in the first half — a jumper from just inside the three-point line — to give the Ducks a commanding 42-23 lead that they would not surrender.
“If I hit my first one, it really builds my confidence,” Craighead said. “Lately, I’ve been hesitating to shoot, so today I just tried to catch the ball and square up, and if I had a shot, I took it.”
“When somebody’s hot like [Craighead] was, you’d better get them the basketball,” head coach Jody Runge said.
Overall, Oregon was 7 of 13 from long distance, with sophomore point guard Kourtney Shreve hitting two, and senior Lindsey Dion adding another. The Bears, on the other hand, were just 2 of 8 from downtown.
“If they’re hitting the outside shots, that’s the best thing that can happen for a post,” said Wolvert, who finished with 16 points. “Because sooner or later they’re going to have to go out there and start guarding that.
“They were definitely on tonight. That’s just a bonus… I love seeing it.”