Jacinta Vandenberg considers herself to be a facilitator.
But with the shot clock winding down on Friday night, Vandenberg had the ball in her hands with no teammates open. As time expired, she hit a smooth hook shot to energize the crowd and give the Ducks a five-point lead with under three minutes left.
Vandenberg, a fifth-year senior who now comes off the bench for the Ducks, scored a season-high nine points, including seven after halftime, and grabbed six rebounds to help the Ducks (13-6, 3-4 Pac-12) hold off Colorado, 71-66.
“Not only did she defend and rebound like she typically does, she scored and hit a couple of key buckets,” head coach Kelly Graves said. “I’m really happy for her.”
Ruthy Hebard recorded her sixth double-double of the year with 19 points and 11 rebounds while Maite Cazorla matched her season high with 14 points.
The Ducks outscored Colorado (11-7, 1-6) 20-14 in the third quarter to erase a two-point Colorado halftime lead. The Ducks have now overcome halftime deficits in three of their last four games.
“I liked how we responded in the second half — took care of the ball a little bit better,” Graves said.
Kennedy Leonard led Colorado in scoring with 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting. She also had seven assists and six rebounds.
Colorado led 31-29 at halftime after the Buffaloes had their largest lead of the game, 31-23, late in the second quarter. The Ducks held the visitors to 33.3 percent shooting but committed 10 turnovers at the half. Mallory McGwire led the Ducks at the break with six points.
Hebard scored nine points during Oregon’s 11-0 run in the third quarter for a 44-36 Duck lead. CU rebounded to cut the deficit to 49-45 after three quarters.
“I thought we were going to take off,” Graves said. “Then we made a couple defensive errors.”
Colorado didn’t lead during the fourth quarter, but trimmed the deficit to 68-64 with 1:20 remaining.
Sabrina Ionescu, who had eight points, five rebounds and six assists, scored three consecutive Oregon points off free throws to give the Ducks a 71-64 lead with 12 seconds remaining.
Oregon had 20 assists on its 27 made field goals. The Ducks used ball-screens to create shots against the Buffs.
“That’s kind of who are,” Graves said. “We share the basketball well. We don’t have a lot of people who beat you off the dribble, so we have to do it off screens.”
The Ducks are now 4-0 in games decided by six points or less. Oregon shot 46.6 percent from the field on Friday but was just 2-of-12 from 3-point range. Colorado, meanwhile, was 10-of-29 from beyond the arc. Graves said his team must find ways to shoot well from 3-point range going forward.
“We have to figure out a way to shake these suckers loose on the perimeter,” Graves said. “Can I say that? That’s not a bad word, right?”
The visitors limited Ionescu and Lexi Bando to a combined 13 points. Together, they entered the game averaging 25.8 points a game.
Up next: The Ducks host Utah on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Matthew Knight Arena.
Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne
