Senior Day was great for Eleanor Haring, but not very good for anyone else in the Ducks’ 74-56 loss to No. 9 Stanford on Saturday afternoon at McArthur Court.
The senior forward from Mullaloo, Australia went into the game needing only 15 points to reach the 1,000-point club.
Haring finished the game with 19 points, which makes her the 20th member of Oregon’s 1,000-point club and gives her 1,004 for her career.
“It’s an incredible accomplishment for an incredible young lady,” Oregon coach Bev Smith said. “It’s just the icing on the cake for (Haring’s) career and she deserves it. She’s been a go-to player. She’s someone who’s stepped up her game.
“And to have it happen at Mac Court on her Senior Day – I think she’d probably have given that up to have a win – but good for El. I think she played a tough game today. We really got what we expected out of her today, and we just needed to help her with a few more people stepping up and scoring.”
Smith was right. As Haring later attested, she would readily have given up her membership in the 1,000-point club if the Ducks could have secured a win against the Cardinal.
“I would rather have come away with the win,” Haring said. “That would kinda have made it perfect. But we weren’t able to do that today. (The 1,000 points) doesn’t really matter to me, it would have been better if we’d won.”
In typical humble fashion, Haring didn’t quite seem to know what to make of the milestone.
“You get to have your picture in the media guide. It’s just one of those things that’s kinda fun to have,” she said, looking a little bewildered when asked what the 1,000 points meant to her.
Points 1,000 and 1,001 for Haring came in the second half on a jump shot off an assist from Taylor Lilley with less than seven minutes remaining in the game.
But by that time, with Stanford holding on to a seemingly insurmountable 58-37 advantage, the Ducks were already trying to play catch up.
Stanford’s Candice Wiggins was back in the lineup after a right ankle sprain that she sustained in the Cardinal’s 80-54 win over Washington last week.
Against the Ducks (15-11 overall, 7-9 Pacific-10 Conference), Wiggins showed no ill-effects of that injury at all.
The junior guard went 7-for-13 from the field, with three three-pointers and eight rebounds. She finished the game with 17 points – second only to Stanford’s freshman post Jayne Appel’s 18 points and 11 rebounds.
With her physicality and presence under the basket, the 6-foot-4-inch freshman sensation was a solid defensive force for the Cardinal throughout the game.
“She’s a very good player,” Oregon senior Carolyn Ganes said. “She’s a big, strong girl who’s gonna be a lot of trouble for the next three years.”
Ganes finished the game with nine points and eight rebounds.
Stanford (23-4 overall, 15-1 Pac-10) got a slow start to the game, and the Ducks managed to start out on a 6-2 roll before the Cardinal finally buckled down and found their rhythm. The teams went into halftime with Stanford leading 27-21.
In the opening minutes of the second half, the Cardinal scored eight unanswered points. With more than 12 minutes remaining, Stanford rolled to a dominating 43-29 lead that Oregon never managed to close.
Senior forward Jessie Shetters, who has been out of the lineup with a back injury, made a brief appearance in the first half and pulled down one rebound for the Ducks.
Shetters is not expected to play next week, but the Ducks are hoping to have her back for the Pac-10 Tournament in March.
The Ducks go on the road against the Washington schools this week.
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