The Ducks were up 40 points early in the third quarter as junior guard Sabrina Ionescu brought the ball down the court. She stopped halfway in the key as Concordia defenders quickly surrounded her.
With her eyes locked forward on a Cavalier defender, and without breaking her stance, she passed the ball backward to a running, and wide open, Erin Boley.
Boley caught the ball under the basket for a layup, as the Ducks continued to dominate Concordia.
In their final game before conference play begins, the Oregon Ducks crushed the Concordia Cavaliers, 110-49, in Sunday afternoon’s exhibition game. Boley led the team with 22 points, as one of five Ducks scoring double-digits. Ionescu led Oregon with 10 assists and senior Oti Gildon led with eight rebounds.
“It was a good tune-up,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said. “I’m glad we scheduled the game. I wouldn’t want to go into Pac-12 play next week with the two-weeks playing off. … That is what this was for to break a sweat, work some kinks out and get back together.”
The game marked Graves’ first appearance back on the Ducks’ bench after serving a two-game suspension due to NCAA violations.
Oregon gave Concordia a quick-head start as an early 3-pointer from guard Kizzah Maltezo gave the Cavaliers the lead at 5-2. It was the team’s only lead of the game and lasted a mere two minutes. The Ducks wasted no time to rally and used a 16-0 run to lead by 18 at the first-quarter break with a score of 28-10.
The Ducks took the lead and ran with the ball in the second quarter, holding Concordia to shoot only 25 percent on field goals. However, the 3-point arch saw action from both teams in the second, including three straight 3-pointers from Oregon freshman guard Taylor Chavez to close the half with a 60-22 lead.
“These games aren’t easy,” Graves said. “They know it’s an exhibition [and] doesn’t count on the stats or on the record. They came out after the first couple of minutes, you could tell there was a little bit of rust. Then after that we were locked in and focused the rest of that first half.”
By halftime intermission, eight of Oregon’s nine players had put up points, including freshmen Satou Sabally and Chavez, who lead both teams with 17 a piece. Oregon outplayed Concordia in the final two quarters of the game, ending the final quarter with a lead of 61.
Graves used all nine healthy players in the game, with no player playing fewer than 21 minutes or more than 24. The Ducks outscored the Cavaliers 51-1 in points off the bench.
Despite the game not counting for the team’s season record, as with exhibition games, the Ducks never let up on defense. With 14 steals and 33 defensive rebounds, Oregon earned 32 points off of the Cavaliers’ 20 total turnovers.
No. 5 Oregon (11-1) will next play on Friday, Jan. 6, at 6 p.m. as it begins conference play against the Washington Huskies (7-6) at Matthew Knight Arena.
“I think you just got to be ready each and every night,” Graves said. “Our team is hungry, and they are ready to play.”
Follow Maggie Vanoni on Twitter @maggie_vanoni