After an emotional senior night against the Huskies on Sunday, the No. 3 Ducks made the trip to Las Vegas hoping to claim their second-ever conference tournament championship after winning in the 2017-18 season.
Oregon enters the tournament on a 16-game win streak after claiming their third straight Pac-12 regular season title, joining Stanford as the only teams to have ever won three regular season conference championships in a row.
The No. 1 seed Ducks secured a bye in the opening round on Thursday, but will face off against the Utah Utes on Friday in the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
Utah took on Washington on Thursday, winning 72-63 in a close matchup. The Utes were led by Lola Pendande and Brynna Maxwell, who both put up 17 points. Sophomore guard Dru Gylten contributed 12 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
“We look at it as an opportunity to play the top team in the country, and we have nothing to lose,” Gylten said. “We’re going to go out there and fight like we did today. I think that’s our mentality going into tomorrow. Just bring it on. We have nothing to lose, and we’ll go out and play our best.”
The Ducks matched up against the Utes twice in the regular season, winning both games handily.
Sabrina Ionescu and Minyon Moore led the Ducks with 17 points each in an 88-51 opening weekend victory on Jan. 5. The Ducks secured a second victory over the Utes in Salt Lake City on Jan. 30 when, after falling behind in the early minutes, they made 12 straight shots in the second quarter, sealing Utah’s fate and claiming a 90-63 win.
The Ducks are led by four soon-to-be-departing players in Satou Sabally, Ruthy Hebard, Minyon Moore and Sabrina Ionescu as they head into their first postseason game.
Ionescu and Hebard are ranked first and second on the Oregon all-time scoring list and Ionescu will take the court after becoming the first player ever to win three straight Pac-12 Player of the Year awards.
Moore ranks first on the Ducks and fifth in the Pac-12 with 51 steals, including two six-steal games.
Sabally stepped up in Oregon’s 16-game win streak, finishing her final regular season with three 20-point performances. The Berlin, Germany native heads into the tournament averaging a team-high 18.6 points per game.
Tip off for No. 1 seed Oregon and No. 8 seed Utah is at 2 p.m. at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
