Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said their three straight wins put the Ducks “right back in it.”
The Oregon women’s basketball team will look to keep the momentum tonight (8 p.m., Pac-12 Networks) against No. 8 Arizona State, which has won 14 straight games and owns a perfect road record.
“We’ve got to keep our composure offensively,” Graves said before Thursday’s practice. “A lot of what they dictate their program around is extreme pressure defensively. They try to make you play fast and get out of your comfort zone.”
The Sun Devils have won 14 straight — eight consecutive Pac-12 games — and hold a 17-3 record.
Graves said the Ducks must handle the ball well and prevent “easy” baskets off live-ball turnovers.
“You have to be physically and mentally tough when you play Arizona State,” Graves said.
Three Arizona State players average double-digits in scoring: Sophie Brunner (10.9 points a game), Quinn Dornstauder (10.2) and Arnecia Hawkins (10.1). The Sun Devils rank No. 2 in the conference in scoring defense (51.5 points per game) and 3-point defense (26.3 percent). The Ducks, on the other hand, are tops in the Pac-12 shooting 3-pointers at 41 percent.
Arizona State uses a system with a bevy of substitutions through the game, spreading the minutes across the board. Seven different ASU players have led the team in single-game scoring this season.
“You have to prepare for a style,” Graves said. “But at the same time they have players that are good enough individually at what they do.”
In the first meeting between the two programs last year, Oregon lost a halftime lead of 27-25 before the Sun Devils scored 10 straight points out of intermission to win. In the next meeting in Eugene, the Ducks shot 46 percent from the field but fell 72-52. In the series, ASU has won 25 of the last 30 meetings dating back to 2000-2001.
“They don’t make many mistakes on defense and they try to get people on their heels,” Oregon guard Lexi Petersen said.
For the Ducks this season, it’s been a story of streaks. Oregon won its first 11 nonconference games before losing its first five conference games. Since allowing Stanford storm back to win on Jan. 15, the Ducks have rattled off three straight wins, including their first Pac-12 road sweep since 2009 last weekend with wins over Colorado and Utah.
The Utes held freshman point guard Maite Cazorla scoreless against Utah, but the Ducks had three players score in double-digits. Oregon won 77-65 in Salt Lake City and shot 47.2 percent from the field and 90.9 percent from the free-throw line.
“I thought it was really important,” Graves said of the weekend. “I thought it put us right back in it, with a chance to compete [for] one of those last spots that the league might get in the NCAA Tournament.”
Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne