Oregon neutralized one of the problems UCLA brought into McArthur Court on Sunday.
The Ducks held All-Pacific-10 Conference sophomore Nikki Blue to nine points after she worked them for 63 in three meetings last season.
“Nikki Blue didn’t have the best game,” Oregon point guard Corrie Mizusawa said. “They showed that they’re not just the Nikki Blue show at UCLA.”
A problem Oregon (8-6 overall, 0-4 Pac-10) couldn’t neutralize was the full-court press that UCLA used to shake up the Ducks in the second half, eventually grabbing the 63-57 victory.
“We weren’t as composed as we were in practice,” center Andrea Bills said. “We weren’t looking past the pressure and it hurt us.”
The Ducks came into the second half expecting to see the press since UCLA (6-6, 1-2) shot 25 percent in the first half.
What Oregon wasn’t expecting was the amount of frustration the press caused them.
“We just didn’t handle their pressure,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. “You have to keep that focus. We need to be ready to handle it and we didn’t.”
UCLA brought out the press in response to a 15-2 run that opened the second half for Oregon. Guard Kedzie Gunderson led the Ducks with six points in their run.
A three-pointer by Chelsea Wagner gave Oregon a 10-point lead with 14:44 remaining in the game. On Oregon’s next possession, the Bruins’ press caught the Ducks off-guard. Oregon turned the ball over after not in-bounding the ball in five seconds.
The Ducks exploited the press in their next two possessions, getting easy inside baskets from Bills and Carolyn Ganes.
With a 41-27 lead, the Ducks settled down just in time for the Bruins to speed things up.
“We went into it with about 15 minutes left in the half,” UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said. “We were trying to find a spark.”
What UCLA found was Oregon struggling under the full-court pressure. The Bruins picked off passes at half-court, making a 23-5 run that gave them a 50-46 lead with 7:31 remaining.
The Ducks worked the UCLA lead down to a one-possession game four times in the final seven minutes, but couldn’t make defensive stops and continued to play catch-up.
Wagner, who hit four three-pointers in the game, had a green light to shoot in the final 55.9 seconds with Oregon down 60-57. The sophomore guard missed three attempts from behind the line during that span.
“We were just trying to get a good shot up,” Wagner said. “I forced it a little bit. I definitely had the green light to go ahead and shoot it, but I got a little excited.”
Wagner led the Ducks with a season-high 12 points, while Bills added 10 points and led Oregon with nine rebounds. The Ducks picked things up in the second half, shooting 45.2 percent from the field after hitting 33.3 percent in the first half.
For the Bruins, Gennifer Arranaga scored 22 points off the bench with 13 coming in the second half. Freshman Amanda Livingston led the 23-5 run, scoring eight of her nine points during the five-minute span.

“The pressure didn’t surprise us,” Smith said. “We just stopped. We became hesitant. The rest is the story of the game. It was a game that was definitely in our hands to win.”
The Ducks have lost five straight games dating back to a 72-52 loss to George Washington on Dec. 18. It’s the first time since the 1995-1996 season and the fourth time in Pacific-10 Conference history that Oregon has started conference play 0-4.
After a 5-0 home start, the Ducks have lost two consecutive home games for the first time in 11 seasons.
“It seems to be that kind of moment for us where we need the ball to fall the right way, and that could be the difference between a loss and a win,” Smith said. “We can’t wait for that. We have to do other things a lot better so that we’re not hoping for that ball to fall the right way.”