Once again, the Oregon women’s basketball team is among the nation’s offensive elite.
The Ducks are tops in the Pacific-10 Conference and third in the nation, averaging 90.5 points through six games. A 2-1 showing at their Thanksgiving-weekend tournament, the Oregon Invitational, has them 5-1 overall.
That one loss was an 82-78 defeat at the hands of Cal State-Bakersfield, in its first year as an NCAA tournament-eligible Division I team. Oregon was ahead 58-42 with 12:36 remaining in the second half but let the Roadrunners come all the way back for a win.
“I looked at it, and all I can say is I don’t have any easy explanation,” head coach Paul Westhead said. “Two things happened that helped Bakersfield: They got fouled — we committed fouls — and they made their free throws. And they made threes at the same time. It was a bad combo for us.
“You get a lead in the second half, and you have to learn to hold that lead. It’s what this time of the year is all about. Our players need to learn the good and the bad. This is a new combination — some veteran players and a handful of new players. We’re in the process of finding out who we are.”
Who they are is still a mystery. The Ducks are prone to both explosive stretches of offensive basketball and bouts of impotence.
Oregon leads the Pac-10 in assists, turnover margin, offensive rebounds and total rebounds — creating offensive opportunities has not been an issue. Defensively, the Ducks lead the Pac-10 in steals and blocks.
“We’re a very aggressive full-court team,” Westhead said. “That’s kind of attributed to the style of play.”
However, Oregon has not taken full advantage of its opportunities, shooting just 38.4 percent from the field (sixth in the conference) and 30.5 percent from three-point range. Forward Amanda Johnson (18.3 points per game) and guard Nia Jackson (17.0 points per game) are first and fifth in the conference in scoring, respectively, but others have struggled.
“I felt pretty decent during exhibition games, but I’m just kind of struggling right now in terms of just finding my shot,” said guard Ashley Buis, third among the Ducks with 12.0 points per game but shooting 27.7 percent from the three-point line.
“It’s kind of frustrating when I was brought in to already have found, and be prepared already for that. The whole new pace of this game, compared to playing in a junior college game, is just completely different.”
Buis and the four Oregon freshmen will receive arguably their best test yet, a road contest against Boise State (5-2) Friday at 6 p.m. Broncos fans have the added motivation of pushing head coach Gordy Presnell to his 500th career win against the Ducks.
“I wish him the best, next week sometime, in that,” Westhead said.
Boise State is shooting 45.6 percent from the field on the season, the best percentage of any Western Athletic Conference team, and is adept at the run-and-gun game Oregon prefers.
“Boise’s not an easy place to go to. I think this weekend helped our team prepare for the road trip,” Westhead said. “You learn a great deal about your team on the road, especially this early in the season.”
His team hopes to learn all it can from its first loss of the season.
“We just need to keep picking it up and getting better every day in practice,” forward Deanna Weaver said. “Since we got that loss, it kind of pushes us to work harder. It was kind of a wake-up call for us.”
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Ducks dominate fastbreak play, take on Broncos
Daily Emerald
December 1, 2010
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