CORVALLIS – With Eleanor Haring on the basketball court, it’s as if you’re watching basketball the way it’s meant to be played. The Oregon women’s basketball team put the basketball in her hands Sunday and let the senior forward decide the game.
By pouring in 12 second-half points, by placing Oregon State star Casey Nash in foul trouble, Haring did just that.
She helped end Oregon’s stretch of 13 consecutive losses on the road in the Pacific-10 Conference.
Maybe more importantly, Haring restored control when Oregon State made a comeback. She stopped an Oregon trend of relinquishing second half leads. Oregon led 35-26 at halftime before Oregon State reeled off a 17-to-8 run to pull even at 43 with 11:32 remaining.
This was Haring’s time. She calmly scored seven of Oregon’s next 10 points, with Oregon and Oregon State trading points and the lead during this stretch, until her lay-up with 5:06 left gave the Ducks the lead for good at 53-52.
After Cicely Oaks nailed a jumper to go ahead 55-52, Carolyn Ganes made a lay-up off a deft assist from Haring under the basket.
“(Haring) is so easy to play with just because she opens it up for cuts, she opens it up for shots,” Ganes said. “She really draws a lot of attention from the defense and so when she’s on, it really makes offensively – life real easy for us.”
Haring’s drives to the hoop appear natural, her fade-away jump shots look effortless – they are both weapons she has mastered through years of repetition and practice.
Nash picked up her fourth foul, not coincidentally, by tugging on Haring’s jersey with 5:49 left. On another drive, Haring froze Nash, then neatly performed an up-and-under move for a wide-open lay-up.
“Our focus was to get the ball inside and to make (Nash) play defense or to make their team play defense against that inside game,” coach Bev Smith said. “And I think we particularly executed that in the second half and I just don’t think we allowed her any breathing time – either offensively or defensively.”
All the attention on Haring shouldn’t overshadow the games of Oaks and Micaela Cocks. Haring’s two teammates, who put 12 and 14 points, respectively, made important plays, but it was the sustained excellence of Haring that made her performance stand out.
Oregon can legitimately sweep the upcoming home games with UCLA on Thursday and USC on Saturday. If the Ducks, now 11-9 overall, are going to win a good chunk of their remaining games and by that, I mean enough to finish above .500, they need the ball in Haring’s hands and scoring when the game matters most.
There is no one else on the Oregon roster with Haring’s knack for creating her own shot. The slender forward is nearly unstoppable in one-on-one situations with a fade-away jumper almost unguardable by opposing players.
Typically, when a player does well on one end of the court, it gives them a boost at the opposite end and for Haring, her play defensively propelled her offense, she said. And so it happened Sunday as Haring blocked a Jasmine Smith three-point attempt with Oregon up 57-52 and grabbed six of her team-high eight rebounds in the second half.
Haring, who’s occasionally struggled with foul trouble this season, had two fouls in the first half and played only eight minutes. The short first half stint gave Haring fresh legs in her 16 second-half minutes.
“It kind of worked out in my favor toward the end,” Haring said.
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