The Ducks took the court on Thursday out for blood, Cardinal blood. Oregon was looking for redemption after it lost the Pac-12 tournament title game to Stanford, 64-57, in March of 2019, the last meeting between the two teams.
What was looking to be a close game between No. 6 Oregon and No. 3 Stanford shaped up to be a blow out. Senior Sabrina Ionescu stole the show with a career-high 37 points, along with seven assists and 11 rebounds, becoming Oregon’s all time leading scorer. Her 37 points were the most by any NCAA women’s basketball player this season against a ranked team.
Ionescu broke the record, previously held by Alison Lang, with a 2-point jumper sending the 12,218 attendees in Matthew Knight Arena into a frenzy. When asked about what she felt in that moment, she said, “Nothing. I didn’t know that was the one to beat it, I just saw the shot was open and took it.”
The Walnut Creek, California, native was the first player in NCAA women’s basketball history to reach more than 2,000 career points, 1,000 career assists and 1,000 career rebounds.
As her list of achievements grows, Ionescu remains humble.
“Honoring and humbling, to be able to be at the top,” said Ionescu. “I’m happy to be able to do this with my team, I’m happy that we won tonight. I think we have bigger plans and bigger goals so I’m not really focused on any one particular achievement that I’ve done, but I think later on in life I’ll take a step back and really appreciate that but right now I think I’m just focused on too many things.”
Head coach Kelly Graves attributed Oregon’s success on Thursday to Ionescu’s spectacular performance.
“When her best is needed that’s usually when she steps up,” Graves said. “It starts with Sabrina. She was really magical tonight.”
Both Oregon and Stanford started this season with high expectations, both being ranked in the AP preseason top ten, so the competition on the court was intense.
“I’m just happy that we won, but they are the standard of excellence,” said Ionescu on playing Stanford. “That’s who I want to beat. Especially coming from the Bay Area and growing up with them in my backyard and then choosing to leave and come here, it’s awesome to be able to play them.”
The Ducks struggled in the first quarter with an 11.1% shooting percentage from the 3-point line and 31.3% shooting percentage from the field. Ionescu had her work cut out for her moving around the Cardinal defense as they tried to shut her down.
Ionescu said that once they settled down and worked on fighting through the defense they started rolling. After playing catchup in the first quarter, with an improvement in the Ducks’ 3-point shooting, Oregon pulled into the lead in the second, ending the half 36-30.
The Ducks’ began to stretch their lead in the third when Ionescu stepped it up, finishing the quarter with a 3-pointer at the buzzer, leading the Ducks with 29 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
“She was phenomenal, scoring, making passes, rebounding,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said about Ionescu. “She is that good and the people around her are very, very good also so we have our work cut out for us to be able to get ready for them the next time.”
Ionescu said that the energy from the crowd contributed to their improvement in the second half as well.
“Game in and game out they are cheering,” Ionescu said. “If it’s a triple double, if it’s Jazz Shelley coming off and hitting a big time three, if it’s Lydia getting to the free throw line. Whatever it is they have supported us game in and game out. They played a huge role in this win and it was electric in there, it was awesome.”
With two minutes left in the game Ionescu left the court to a thunderous applause.
“I think that’s the best game we’ve played this year,” Ionescu stated after the game.
