Who did the Ducks beat Saturday night?
The sign outside McArthur Court indicated Oregon versus Stanford, and sure enough, the opposing players running up and down the court were clad in Cardinal red.
But was that really the Cardinal?
Could a team such as Stanford — the Pacific-10 Conference’s traditional “measuring stick,” as Oregon State head coach Judy Spoelstra said Thursday night — really be held to just 30.9 percent shooting and lose by 18 points?
Especially after losing 81-65 two nights earlier to the Beavers?
The official box scores confirm it: Yes, that was the Cardinal.
And the No. 18 Oregon women’s basketball team (10-3 overall, 3-0 Pac-10) dominated Stanford (7-7, 1-3) in every facet of the game except for rebounding, rolling to a 72-54 win in front of 7,602 fans at The Pit.
The Ducks were up 44-27 by halftime and never looked back. Their 3-0 conference record is second only to Arizona’s (4-0).
“It was a big game, so we wanted to come out and establish ourselves early,” shooting guard Jamie Craighead said. “I think we did that in all phases of the game. We just pretty much blew them away tonight.
“The Oregon State coach said ‘I guess Stanford’s our measuring stick,’ so maybe now we’re trying to establish that we’re that measuring stick, so it’s a big win.”
The Ducks were phenomenal from the outside. While Oregon shot just 45.8 percent for the game, it made 60 percent of its three-point attempts.
Craighead led the way with a game-high 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field, including 4-for-5 from behind the arc. Forward Lindsey Dion hit one three-pointer and scored 11 points, and point guard Alissa Edwards chipped in a trey and five points.
But no three-pointer was more dramatic than one shot just before halftime. Starting point guard Kourtney Shreve received the inbound pass, drove past halfcourt and let it fly from about 25 feet. The ball left her fingertips an instant before the buzzer sounded.
She drained it.
The Ducks and their fans erupted in wild celebration, the Cardinal limped to the locker room down by 17 and Shreve put a bold exclamation point on her best game as an Oregon starter. She finished with a stat line of 11 points, eight rebounds, four assists, three steals and just one turnover.
“That first half was unbelievable. Everybody came out right away, really strong, really aggressive and played some good ball,” Shreve said. “That last shot, you know — I was exhausted, I was like, ‘I hope I don’t have to take it all the way …’ — so that was a lucky shot, but hey, in practice we practice those kinds of things.”
“I think we’re rolling right now,” Craighead said. “We’re playing really good basketball and I’m proud of this team.”
Rebounding was the only area where Oregon had problems. The Cardinal outrebounded the Ducks 41-26 and 21-8 on the offensive glass.
Oregon faced similar woes against California last Thursday. The Golden Bears won that battle of the boards 32-26, but the big difference was on the offensive boards. Cal grabbed 16 misses to the Ducks’ nine.
“We all try to outrebound [opponents] by just jumping over people, and we’re not jumpers,” Craighead said. “Ndidi [Unaka] is the only person who can jump. We need to push them out of the box there and try to get some rebounds.”
Stanford, picked in preseason media polls to win the Pac-10 title, is now 1-3 in conference play.
The Cardinal has major problems at point guard. Forward Nicole Powell is running the offense in place of starter Susan King, who sustained a season-ending knee injury against Oklahoma Dec. 27.
“I don’t think you get excited about beating Stanford when they don’t have a point guard,” Oregon head coach Jody Runge said. “You feel bad for them because you know how hard their kids are struggling. Playing at Stanford, there’s a lot of pressure to be successful there.”