Almost two months ago, something very unusual happened to the Stanford women’s basketball team. It lost.
In its second game of the conference season, the Cardinal dropped a shocker to the Ducks — its only loss to a Pacific-10 Conference opponent this season. Since that time, the No. 3 Cardinal has won 15 straight contests.
The Ducks’ 62-58 victory at McArthur Court allowed them to be the only team — other than Stanford (24-2 overall, 15-1 Pac-10) — to go undefeated at home in Pac-10 play this season.
This time around, the Ducks (18-7, 11-5) pay a visit to Maples Pavilion — where they are 1-17 all-time — with the weight of a 2-5 road record against Pac-10 teams resting on their shoulders.
“We’re really excited to get down to their house and see if we’ve improved over the season,” Oregon freshman Gabrielle Richards said. “The weekend here against the Arizona schools has just given us the extra encouragement to go out and finish the season strong.”
The Ducks snuck into second place in the conference by defeating Arizona State and Arizona last week, and they are now fighting off the competition to secure the second seed in the Pac-10 Tournament and an NCAA Tournament berth.
“I don’t think our team feels comfortable at all,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. “Our team is still hungry to make sure we do all that we can to secure a spot in the (NCAA) tournament.”
Meanwhile, Stanford has already clinched its fifth-straight Pac-10 title and an invitation to the Big Dance.
“They really are firing on all pistons,” Smith said of Stanford, which now has senior guard Susan Borchardt back from injury. “They are better than they were earlier in
the season.
“I think Susan Borchardt gives them that third point guard on the floor. Her and Candice Wiggins seem to really fuel off of each other.”
Wiggins is another story.
She is the only freshman to be nominated for the Naismith Trophy this season, which honors the top male and female collegiate basketball players in the country. The 5-foot-11 guard has been recognized as the Pac-10 Player of the Week twice, leads her team in scoring and is second in the conference, averaging 17.4 points per game.
As a team, Stanford owns the best scoring offense, field goal percentage and rebounding average in the Pac-10. It is second in scoring defense and three-point field goal percentage.
“They’re a very structured team, and they do exactly what they’re supposed to do,” Oregon senior forward Cathrine Kraayeveld said. “But we play like that too.”
Smith said her team’s style of play matches up well to Stanford’s because both teams have an emphasized inside-outside game.
“We like to use the skill of our players and have our players be in control of
the game,” Smith said.
For Oregon senior point guard Corrie Mizusawa, a native of Lafayette, Calif., two wins for Oregon in the Bay Area will be a sweet finish to her final season.
“We want to win both games this week and go into the Pac-10 Tournament confident with that second seed,” Mizusawa said.
As the season nears its end, Richards looked back on the final months of a winning team.
“I think it’s flown by, especially the past two months,” she said. “We’re very excited to get to the end of the season, but we don’t want to stop playing — it’s kind of bittersweet.”

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