CORVALLIS, Ore. — Losing a game stings. Losing a highly-contested, close and heated rivalry game stings more. Losing a star player in the process stings the most.
In the second quarter, Ruthy Hebard leaped back for an offensive rebound, but when she caught the ball, she stumbled and released the ball but the damage was already done. Hebard got up slowly, limped to the bench and by the end of the first half, she was off to the locker room with her right knee wrapped and Oregon’s game, and season, in jeopardy.
“Don’t know,” head coach Kelly Graves said of the severity of Hebard’s injury, “doesn’t look good.”
Hebard didn’t return to the game and the Ducks paid for it. No. 12 Oregon State (21-5, 11-3 Pac-12) controlled the game, and held on to beat No. 2 Oregon (24-2, 13-1, Pac-12) 67-62 at Gill Coliseum in the second Civil War sellout in four days as the teams split the series for a second straight year.
The Ducks sorely missed their post presence. Without Hebard, last year’s national power forward of the year, Oregon played small much of the time, using Erin Boley and Satou Sabally down low.
“The game changed of course when Ruthy went down,” Oregon State head coach Scott Rueck said. “Then it turned into just a chess match that neither of us had probably prepared for.”
Oregon’s nine-player rotation has been effective this season, but just one injury changes everything.
The Ducks still managed to fight, bringing the game down to the wire.
With the clock ticking down in a close game, there’s no one Oregon would rather give the ball to than last year’s national point guard of the year, Sabrina Ionescu.
Ionescu helped Oregon claw back in the second half, hitting clutch jump shots and three free throws to give Oregon a 52-50 lead, its first since 13-12 in the first quarter. But with five seconds to play and the Ducks down three, Ionescu traveled after Aleah Goodman applied rapid pressure on an inbound.
“I knew we had a foul to give,” Goodman said. “I knew if I ran up on her a foul would be called, which was fine, or a travel would be called. I just kind of took a chance and went for it.”
Ionescu, who scored 15 second-half points, finished the night with a team-high 21 points (9-of-25, 0-for-6 3-pt.), seven rebounds and four assists.
“She feels like there are nights where she’s just got to do it all. She’s such a great player that you almost allow it a little bit,” Graves said. “She’ll learn from this. It’ll eat at her. This will drive her this next weekend and the following weekend after this, that’s just who she is.”
Oregon shot just 36 percent on Monday and hit a mere five of its 22 attempted 3-pointers after going 9-of-17 from deep in Friday’s matchup.
“They’re one of the best defensive teams in the country for a reason,” Graves said. “What they do is they force you in quick with bad shots, and the struggle we’ve had with them is once we get to that side of the floor we stay on that side of the floor.”
Oregon has a quick turnaround after a short drive home with UCLA coming to Eugene on Friday.
“I have full confidence in our bench,” Graves said. “We won’t obviously have that anchor in the middle but we’ll see. I trust all of these guys.”
Follow Shawn Medow on Twitter @ShawnMedow
