The scoreboard keeper tried to record Cathrine Kraayeveld’s layin with 10:07 to play, which gave Oregon a 49-45 lead over UCLA on Saturday at McArthur Court, but the scoreboard didn’t quite respond. It flashed, moaned with an obnoxious buzz, flashed again, then buzzed some more.
While referees and technicians tried to fix the malfunction, the Bruins gathered around head coach Kathy Olivier for a free timeout. The five Oregon players stayed on the north side of McArthur Court, talking, giggling and getting harassed by the Oregon mascot.
Finally, after about five minutes, the scoreboard’s yellow lettering reappeared and the buzz subsided. UCLA was accidentally given 150 points, but by the time the Bruins put the ball back in play, everything seemed to work properly, and the score read 49-45, with 10:05 remaining in the game.
The Duck mascot must have said something to ignite the Duck players during the delay as Oregon (12-8 overall, 7-4 Pacific-10 Conference) rattled off nine unanswered points, including five from senior sharpshooter Jamie Craighead, to awaken the 5,142 fans at Mac Court.
After a timeout with 7:41 to play, UCLA installed a full-court press, which nearly won the game for the Bruins in the teams’ first meeting in Los Angeles on Dec. 20, but the Ducks were driven on Saturday. From the scoreboard incident on, Oregon outscored the Bruins 26-9 en route to a 76-54 victory.
This came after the Ducks shot a horrid 25 percent from the floor in the first half and trailed 27-26 at the break against the Bruins (5-14, 2-9).
“We weren’t really going as hard as we could (in the first half). We were just going through the motions,” said Kraayeveld, who finished the game with 16 points and 14 rebounds. “But we played really well as a team in the second half.”
Junior guard Shaquala Williams could hardly miss in the second half, scoring 16 points on 6-for-7 shooting with no turnovers. In the first 20 minutes, she was 3-for-10 with seven points and four turnovers.
“It’s about the team,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said of Williams’s play. “It’s our shot, not Shaquala’s shot. But I thought she made some very good decisions.”
What wouldn’t fall in the first half, fell for the Ducks in the second. They made the extra pass, balanced their scoring and didn’t panic. “We made the adjustments in the second half,” Smith said.
“We started reversing the ball, getting inside and getting better shots,” Williams said. “We were able to get over our early woes. In the past, we may have sulked.”
Senior guard Edniesha Curry, who scored 22 points against UCLA in December — all in the first half — brought the crowd to its feet with 1:15 to play after she hit a long three-pointer as the shot-clock expired.
The horn sounded as the scoreboard hit quadruple zero, the score flashing 76-54, Oregon. It was a noise worth hearing for Duck fans.