Oregon’s freshmen scored 53 of the 77 points in the Ducks’ 77-62 win over Cal State Bakersfield.
An unlikely hero emerged in freshman Ruthy Hebard, who finished the game 8-of-9 shooting with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Fellow freshman Sabrina Ionescu also had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Sierra Campisano shined in her return after injury, but Lexi Bando went 0-for-2 with zero points on the night.
Four different players earned double digit points.
“Our second unit came in and did a nice job of picking it up for us, creating some things defensively,” head coach Kelly Graves said.
Oregon looked disjointed in the first quarter, falling behind 15-4, but the Ducks turned things around after a timeout, some substitutions and a bit of magic from Ionescu.
Ionescu scored Oregon’s first points of the night but when the Ducks trailed 15-4, she began to control the tempo of Oregon’s offense. The Walnut Creek California, native hit a 3-pointer and on the next possession she made a steal that turned into two more points for Oregon. With the Ducks still trailing, Ionescu continued to work, even grabbing her own rebound on two occasions.
She was substituted with a minute left in the quarter, but Oregon had cut back on the 11-point deficit, bringing it down to just three to head into the second quarter.
Hebard aided in Oregon’s first quarter comeback, coming off the bench and scoring six points, grabbing five rebounds and an assist.
Campisano also dazzled in her Duck debut, scoring a 3-pointer on her first career attempt and then sinking one from inside the arc on her second attempt. The freshman was immediately impactful after being out with an injury.
“I’m still a little bit rusty so I’ve got to get in the gym and get more shots up,” Campisano said. “I had a really hard couple of months.”
Oregon led 37-32 at intermission.
The Ducks allowed 17 points in the second quarter after the slow start when Oregon went down 15-4. Oregon started the second half off in opposite form to its first half start, going on a 10-2 run.
Hebard continued her good run from the first half and scored early after making a steal and was the first Duck to reach double-digit points.
“We have six posts so when we get in we have to go as hard as we can because we definitely have depth,” Hebard said.
Oregon kept a steady lead, but the Ducks went without a field goal for over four minutes towards the end of the quarter, but Oregon finished the frame on a 6-0 run to end the quarter ahead 61-44.
Once again, Graves gave minutes to every Oregon player who was dressed for the game, with 14 players featuring for the Ducks in this affair — the most in one game this season. It was the first time all seven freshmen in Oregon’s No. 3-ranked recruiting class played in the same game.
“We just have not learned to put the dagger in teams,” Graves said. “[We’ve] built nice leads in the third quarter in the last two games and we haven’t been able to stretch that lead out and put them away.”
Hebard was taken out of the game with under a minute to go and received a standing ovation from the Matthew Knight Arena crowd.
“We came here to work hard and show that we can make it as far as we want,” Hebard said. “In practice, we’re working hard so I guess that just shows we want to play, we want to win.”
Oregon returns to action when it hosts UT San Antonio on Sunday.
Follow Shawn Medow on Twitter @ShawnMedow