LOS ANGELES — The sight of Oregon guard Cicely Oaks lying on the floor, left momentarily breathless by a knee to the stomach, symbolized the women’s basketball team’s start to Pacific-10 Conference play. Momentarily dazed, Oregon is seeking answers to its recent slide.
After two consecutive losses in California, the latest a 72-48 defeat to USC in the Lyons Center at USC before 910 fans, Oregon players and coach Bev Smith fell back on spreading keywords like “heart” and “effort.”
“”We have to be ready to play in the Pac-10,” Oaks said. “They are all going to be tough games. There are not going to be any more 20-point blowouts. We have to know they are going to be close right to the end so we have to be ready to do that.”
The Ducks started slowly, trying to feed Richards inside with mixed results. When Richards received the ball and had room to maneuver, she had success. She gave Oregon its first and only lead with a lay up for a 2-0 advantage. From there, USC’s 3-2 zone defense gave Oregon fits, making it difficult to get the ball inside or gain any true cohesion on offense.
“They really challenged our wings and took away our inside game,” Smith said.
Showing its depth, USC (8-3, 2-0) had eight players score in a deciding 16-1 run to lengthen a 7-4 lead to 23-5. USC’s equally quick offense ran by point guard Camille LeNoir gave USC a 41-17 halftime margin.
Oregon (8-3, 0-2) showed life in the second half, cutting a 25-point deficit to 18 for a score of 53-35. Oregon used an 11-4 run, including two three pointers by guard Chelsea Wagner and baskets by center Gabrielle Richards and Oaks. USC answered with 13 unanswered points, putting the game out of reach.
Only Richards finished in double figures in scoring, posting 14 points and grabbing five rebounds. Chelsea Wagner and Oaks scored six points apiece.
The final statistics reflected Oregon’s struggles. USC turned 25 Oregon turnovers into 36 points, turned 14 offensive rebounds into 20 second-chance points, turned bench depth into 27 points and turned its speed advantage into 10 fast-break points.
“Bev (Smith) used the word ‘soft,’ and I think she is correct in choosing that word,” Oaks said. “Teams do know that if they pressure us, we are kind of going to buckle and we are just going to fold, so if we get that taken care of, we are going to be fine.”
Using an efficient inside-outside attack, USC had three players reach double figure scoring. Eshaya Murphy scored 17 points and Jamie Hagiya and Lenoir each scored 11.
“When the posts are playing good, that opens it up for the wings and for the point guard,” LeNoir said. “When we (wings and point guard) are on, we open it up for them.”
USC, like UCLA, gave Oregon’s offense room along the perimeter, and the Ducks obliged, shooting 3-for-17 from beyond the arc.
Oaks, making her second consecutive start, attacked the basket. She said Oregon needs to do more of the same.
“Instead of settling for the shot they want us to take, just be more aggressive and greedy and just go in there and get a lay up,” she said.
Oregon now has one non-conference contest at Colorado on Dec. 30 before continuing conference play at home Jan. 5 against California and Jan. 7 against Stanford.
The question now facing the Ducks is whether it can recover and become a contender in the Pac-10. Oregon did it last year, losing two games in Los Angeles and then beating USC and UCLA in Eugene.
“When we are playing together and we are playing well, we can do anything,” Oregon guard Tamika Nurse said.
Trakh, a 12 year college coach and four time NCAA tournament participant, said he believes Oregon is tournament capable.
“This (game) is not indicative of their team or what they can do,” he said. “Last year we played like this down here, then they absolutely kicked our butt up there.”
