When the Ducks head to UCLA, the game will put one team ahead of the other — and not just in terms of the final score. The all-time record for the Oregon-UCLA series, which spans back to 1980, stands even at 20 wins apiece.
Oregon (9-3 overall, 2-1 Pacific-10 Conference) has split its last 11 road trips to the Los Angeles teams. The Ducks’ original plan to sweep the USC-UCLA series on the road for the first time sank after Sunday’s 77-72 loss to the Women of Troy.
Now the Ducks are just hoping to come away with another split. As motivation, they’ll look to their first two Pac-10 victories of the season as well as last season’s 61-55 win over the Bruins at
Pauley Pavilion.
However, UCLA (8-3, 2-0) has taken the other four
of the last five contests
against Oregon.
In the last meeting between these two teams, UCLA’s
Lisa Willis scored a game-high 20 points, while
Noelle Quinn posted 11 points and 15 rebounds.
On Oregon’s side, Chelsea Wagner scored a team-high 17 points, and Andrea Bills added 13 points and 11 rebounds. Wagner has scored 29 points in her past two games against the Bruins.
In preseason polls, the No. 22 Bruins were picked to finish third in the Pac-10 by the conference’s coaches as well as by the media. Stanford and Arizona were the only teams chosen ahead of UCLA. Oregon has already upset Stanford this season.
Both Oregon and UCLA have faced then-No. 10 Ohio State this season, but neither received a pleasing outcome. UCLA took an 83-60 loss and Oregon fell by a smaller margin, 73-58.
The Ducks are sixth in the conference in scoring with 68.2 points per game, while UCLA is third, averaging 71.7.
Quinn leads the Bruins — and the Pac-10 — with 19 points per game. The sophomore has recorded double digits in the last 32 consecutive games. The 6-foot-tall guard was honored as the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and a first-team All-Pac-10 selection last season. She was recognized as the Pac-10 Player of the Week for the first two weeks of the season.
Oregon has proudly witnessed two of its players break into the top ten list for career rebounds. Bills, a senior and Oregon’s starting
center, is now seventh with 690, and senior forward
Cathrine Kraayeveld is currently ninth with 633.
Oregon center Andrea Bills, seen here maneuvering around an Ohio State defender, ranks seventh on Oregon’s career rebounding list with 690 boards. She ranks fifth in the Pac-10 for the season.
Kraayeveld is second in rebounding among Pac-10
players, pulling down nine boards per game. Bills (6.8) ranks fifth behind Quinn (7.5)
at fourth. Quinn’s career-best mark for rebounds in
a game came against Oregon when she posted 15 on
Jan. 29, 2004.
Kraayeveld is fourth in the conference in scoring with 16.1 points per game. She has three double-doubles this season already. Wagner is only averaging 7.7 points per game, but scored 21 points against USC to tie her career high, which she set earlier this season.
Oregon senior Corrie Mizusawa leads the Pac-10 in assists with 88 total and 7.33 per game. Bruins point guard
Nikki Blue is second with 4.9 per game.
Quinn and Blue each average 3.45 steals per game, which is tops in the conference. Blue posted a career-best eight steals against the Ducks last season.
UCLA is coming off of a
73-45 win over Oregon State that upped its home winning streak to nine games, continuing from last season. Willis became the school’s career three-point leader. Quinn
finished the night two steals shy
of a triple-double with 20 points,
12 rebounds, eight steals and
six assists.
