Three starters, including the team’s leading scorer, didn’t get off the bench until nearly seven minutes into the game. Normally, the situation would be cause
for concern.
But not for the Oregon women’s basketball team on senior night.
With the aid of its four seniors, the Ducks surged to a 13-8 lead in the first half of Saturday’s Pacific-10 Conference battle against the California Bears. And when the regular starters entered the game, everything was, well, easy. Oregon won 76-43.
“I don’t think Oregon was on top of their game early on,” Cal head coach Caren Horstmeyer said. “I’m really at a loss. That was our worst game of the year.”
Conversely, it may have been the Ducks’ best game of the season.
In front of 4,820 fans at McArthur Court, the Ducks won Saturday with defense, something they’ve been pressing all season. Cal went nearly eight minutes without a field goal in the first half and shot just 26 percent from the field — Oregon’s best defensive effort of the year. Cal’s 43 points were the fewest the Ducks have allowed all season.
After the first half, Cal had just 16 points on 6-of-25 shooting (24 percent).
“I give our defense credit for that,” said Oregon junior guard Shaquala Williams. “We know they can score, but tonight we just had a really stingy defense who wasn’t going to give them anything easy.”
Senior post Alyssa Fredrick had a game-high 15 points to go along with three rebounds and only
one turnover.
“We wanted to come out with a lot of intensity and not let our emotions hinder our performance, and I feel like we did that,” said senior forward Ndidi Unaka, who had five points and seven rebounds. “Our defense kindles our offense because we are a running team. We need to come out strong on defense and make them work hard.”
Leading 37-16 at the half, the Ducks pushed the margin to 52-26 on a Cathrine Kraayeveld layin with 13:19 to play. For the game, Oregon shot 53 percent and had 23 assists to Cal’s five.
“I don’t think we won tonight because it was senior night, but because the seniors stepped on the floor and performed at standards that go beyond just a basketball game — playing your best regardless of who you’re playing against,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. “And tonight, for the first time, we had back-to-back games where we absolutely did that.”
Oregon’s tenacious defensive effort comes after Thursday’s 77-72 loss to No. 2 Stanford, a game the Ducks felt they could have won.
“We didn’t want Stanford to make us bring out our best effort,” Williams said. “We wanted to get ourselves up for this game. Tonight we had tremendous team work.”
Williams, the team’s leading scorer, didn’t start the game because she violated a team rule, which was not specified. Junior Alissa Edwards started in her place.
“I didn’t do something I was supposed to do, and I paid the consequence for it,” Williams said.
Despite not starting, Williams scored 11 points and dished out eight assists.
“It was one of those nights where I wanted to get my teammates involved, and I just didn’t feel like scoring,” she said. “I was able to put the ball on the floor, and it was like their defense was parting like the Red Sea and I was just able to find my posts.”
With just three regular season games remaining — all on the road — the Ducks are still vying for a high seed in the inaugural Pac-10 Tournament, to be held at McArthur Court beginning March 1. The Ducks travel to Oregon State on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tipoff at Gill Coliseum.