Oregon senior Jillian Alleyne is one of the most decorated players in Oregon women’s basketball history. She’s the all-time leader in rebounds and is closing in on the top mark for double-doubles. In the gameday media guide, a full page is devoted to her successes, but there’s one piece missing: she’s never topped the Beavers for a Civil War win.
In fact, no member of today’s roster knows that feeling.
Head coach Kelly Graves said that should be enough motivation this week for the Ducks (11-2) in wake of an 0-2 start to Pac-12 play last weekend against UCLA and USC.
“We need to change that,” Graves said of the success against N0. 11 Oregon State. “That’s going to be a tall task, but we’re certainly capable. I think (a win) would get us back on track.”
Senior gaurd Lexi Petersen, who’s been with the program for five years, said this week is “huge for us.”
Oregon State, which won the Pac-12 conference regular season title last year, is off to a 10-3 start and split its opening Pac-12 games last weekend. The Beavers faced some of the nation’s best in their nonconference portion, including a close 62-61 loss to No. 3 Notre Dame. They also rank first in the conference in free-throws with 79.1 percent. They’ve held their opponents to 31.1 percent shooting from the floor so far, good for second in the conference.
The Ducks and the Beavers play in back-to-back games this weekend: first in Corvallis on Friday at 7 p.m., then in Eugene on Sunday at 12 p.m. Graves said he doesn’t enjoy the scheduling of the games, but said the only alternative option is to play the Beavers directly following Christmas Break, when a lot of schools prefer to see a nonconference opponent.
“You treat it like the NBA,” Graves said. “You play, make adjustments and then play again.”
Oregon State is anchored by Ruth Hamblin, who is averaging 11.3 points and 9.4 rebounds per game, and Jamie Weisner, who is averaging 17.5 points per game. The Beavers’ second-ranked scorer, Sydney Weise, has missed the past four games with an injury to her non-shooting hand. She averaged 12.9 points a game before going down.
The Ducks figure to have a better chance than in previous years of slowing down 6-foot-6 Hamblin, mostly due to Jacinta Vandenberg’s post presence at 6-foot-5. Oregon State tops the conference in rebounding margin (+17.4) and blocked shots (7.23) per game.
“We have a little bit more size this year,” Graves said. “Quite frankly, last weekend was a bad matchup for us. We haven’t handled pressure very well. … I think we match up better with Ruth (Hamblin), but she’s such a talented player. Can anybody really stop her? You just hope to slow her down a little bit.”
Oregon’s focus is on toughness coming off its first Pac-12 weekend. The Ducks saw on-ball pressure on most possessions and couldn’t respond.
“We’re just trying to be confident and take little things that we learned from the game,” guard Kat Cooper said. “We’re bringing that to practice and building on that.”
Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne