There might not be a more anticipated player-to-player matchup in the country than Sunday’s battle between Ruthy Hebard and Teaira McCowan.
It’s such an important matchup that Oregon head coach Kelly Graves has jumped in to try emulate the presence the 6-foot-7 center, who he compared to Mt. Hood, which sits in the Cascades’ backdrop of the Moda Center.
“Coach Graves just banging us up a little bit,” Hebard said. “We played against ourselves and Lydia, all banging against each other. It was good. I mean, she’s super physical. That’s going to be the main point of the game.”
When McCowan faced Hebard and the Ducks in Eugene in December, Oregon stifled McCowan, holding her to just five points and 11 rebounds en route to a 82-74 win. For McCowan, that game was just a fluke for her.
“I just know I have to be better for my teammates, I have to be focused, dialed in,” she said. “I can’t, you know, just do what I did last game. I went back and looked at it. I wasn’t, you know, doing what I normally do. I wasn’t the normal T. I know this time I’ll be better, my team will be better.”
Stopping McCowan is the key part of the game plan for the Ducks once again.
The Ducks frustrated her, which McCowan credits to just a “bad game” on her part. But it was an Oregon team with something to prove at Matthew Knight Arena. It was a team in the national spotlight against a team that was on the brink of being national champions the year before.
Now, both teams are three games away from that title.
“We know that tomorrow she’s not going to let that happen again, especially with a Final Four on the line,” Oregon guard Sabrina Ionescu said. “We’re going to have to be able to learn and adjust and play better than we did down at our place.”
Hebard says getting low and playing physically will be her mindset for defending McCowan, but on the offense, her teammates will be the key.
“Having our guards go off, turn the corner, getting dump-offs,” she said. “Taylor [Chavez] played a great game. I remember that. That’s going to help tomorrow, as well.”
Oregon’s pick-and-roll offense dominated the Bulldogs in Eugene. The one-two punch between Ionescu and Hebard is dizzying, and that can be tough for McCown and co. to track.
By dragging McCowan out to the perimeter, the Ducks can free up the space in the paint, and Hebard can go to work.
“She’s so big, so strong, super talented,” Oregon guard Morgan Yaeger said. “Whenever the opposite team has a really good player, we always say ‘it’s not just one player guarding her, it’s everyone guarding her.’”
Defending McCowan, which is going to be primarily Hebard’s role on Sunday as it was in December, will be a sight to behold. Physicality is one thing but mentally, taking either Hebard or McCowan out of the game would be detrimental for these teams, even with both the Ducks and Bulldogs hitting 3-pointers at high rates.
“She has help,” Graves said. “It’s not a one-person show.”
Follow Shawn Medow on Twitter @ShawnMedow
