There are a number of reasons for Oregon’s dominant 81-59 victory over Southern California Saturday at McArthur Court.
The Ducks shot 62 percent from the floor and 69 percent from beyond the three-point line.
The Ducks out-rebounded the Trojans 44-28.
The Ducks dished out more assists.
And lastly but most importantly, the Ducks used experience to stay perfect at home against Pacific-10 Conference opponents this year.
With 15:08 left in the second half and the Ducks up by 26 points — their largest lead of the game — USC made its best attempt at a comeback.
The Trojans switched to a full-court press and forced the Ducks to commit 11 turnovers in their next 13 possessions, resulting in a 12-0 run by the Women of Troy.
After a Duck timeout with 8:57 left, Oregon senior Andrea Bills, who tied for a game-high 22 points, ended the Trojans’ run with five straight points and re-ignited the Duck offense.
“It was big time,” Bills said. “There was one point where we had a few turnovers and the seniors stepped it up, just trying to show leadership and getting our teammates back into it if they were slipping off mentally.”
The quartet of seniors — Bills, Cathrine Kraayeveld, Corrie Mizusawa and Brandi Davis — scored 66 of the team’s 81 points and the last 23 points of the game.
“I thought we had exceptional leadership by those three (Kraayeveld, Bills and Mizusawa),” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. “And not just in terms of scoring, but keeping the younger players believing, being vocal, being supportive.”
For the weekend, senior point guard Mizusawa handed out 18 assists, limited her turnovers to six and, most importantly, routinely broke both USC and UCLA’s press defenses.
“The coaches definitely look to us to be leaders,” Kraayeveld said. “And I think that is what our team needs, is somebody to step up every game.”
After an off-night against UCLA on Thursday, the 6-foot-4 Kraayeveld returned to form against USC, grabbing her seventh double-double of the season and 26th of her career.
The weekend series also saw the re-emergence of Brandi Davis, who scored 42 points over both games and has filled the role of injured shooting guard Chelsea Wagner.

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