Four games into Pacific-10 Conference play, the Oregon women’s basketball team is trying to stay afloat. The Ducks stand at 9-5 overall, but are just 1-3 in conference.
“Everyone’s tired, but you get through it,” point guard Tamika Nurse said.
Oregon is surviving with different players taking turns scoring and making contributions. The latest is Carolyn Ganes, who filled in for Jessie Shetters, Oregon’s 6-foot-6-inch post, who sat out Oregon’s loss to UCLA Sunday afternoon.
“We’ve been playing hard and we’ve been practicing through a lot of fatigue so I think everyone is used to it,” Ganes said. “And it’s always more exciting in a game. You never really feel the fatigue once you’re in the battle.”
Shetters suffered a back injury in Oregon’s double-overtime loss to USC last Friday. Shetters met with doctors Monday afternoon, but as of Monday night, her status for next weekend’s games against Arizona and Arizona State was unclear.
Oregon missed her Sunday against UCLA’s taller lineup. The Bruins attacked Oregon inside to open the second half.
On offense, Ganes more than filled in with 20 points – her second game of more than 20 points this season and the sixth of her Oregon career.
“She can shoot the ball and earlier in the season, she was a little dry and she’s kind of found her rhythm again,” Nurse said. “A lot of posts don’t know how to guard her because she can step out more than she likes to post. But she will get on the block and bang with you.”
Ganes used her time off from school during winter break to spend more time in the gym. The extra work paid off.
She mixed up her long distance shooting with an up and under move in the post.
“Carolyn was awesome (Sunday),” coach Bev Smith said. “She understands the game and where she could get her scores. I thought Tamika did a great job of finding her.”
Oregon led 37-31 at halftime. The pace of the game changed in the second half. Oregon’s shots stopped falling and UCLA wrestled away control of the game.
“In the first half, I thought that we did an excellent job of pushing the ball. We ran transition really well, but we didn’t get into a real helter-skelter game like they wanted to get into,” Ganes said. “I think we need to be able to push the ball without being in a real rush.”
Coming from down under
Oregon gained a new recruit during the break in Victoria Kenyon. The 6-foot-1-inch guard/forward from River Hills in Queensland, Australia, is going to redshirt the rest of the 2006-07 season and practice with the team.
Kenyon traveled with the team on the Los Angeles road trip.
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