Peyton Scott eased her way into the season, ceding shots to Deja Kelly and Elisa Mevius, committing to head coach Kelly Graves’ much deeper team and letting her teammates establish themselves in the first handful of games of her final season of college basketball. 

Maybe it was her being respectful of a new process in her return from a major injury. Maybe it was a sign that her shot, something she’d never really struggled with, wasn’t yet in form. 

Or, just maybe, it was all a mirage, the point guard was still lurking, waiting for the perfect moment to erupt.

She finally did, Saturday Scott did everything in leading the Ducks (13-5, 4-3 Big Ten)  to a 69-53 win over Purdue (7-10, 0-6 Big Ten ) at Matthew Knight Arena. 

When the offense went cold, she scored. When a teammate shook open, she found them. And when the game called for it, Scott showed her veteran savvy — she drew a shooting foul near the half-court as time expired in the first quarter and had multiple breakaway steals to help pad the Ducks’ lead. 

“Peyton from mid-range is just as good as it gets,” Graves said. “You can always count on her, that’s the great thing about Peyton, you can always count on her.” 

Scott finished with 13 points three rebounds and three assists, she also played 32 minutes, grabbed a pair of steals and was a +7. 

“She’s really good at finding her own shot,” Kelly said of Scott. “She just brings a different energy to us, especially when we have some empty possessions, she was the one we were looking for, and she came through.” 

The rest of her Ducks held up their end of their bargain too. They were more active in transition, had quicker hands and most importantly, were much cleaner. Turning the ball over just  1 1times. “Defense opening statement”

Purdue entered as losers of five-straight conference games by a margin of over 27 points. Beating Oregon would have been an upset of significant proportions with ESPN’s matchup predictor giving the Ducks a 91.7% chance of winning. After the Ducks fell into an early rut, the Boilermakers could dream when they started with a 9-4 advantage. 

But the Ducks were just too big, too physical, and too crafty. Mevius was the primary catalyst for the latter, dazzling with her usual display of nifty passes and acrobatic layups. 

Purdue miraculously only trailed by four after turning the ball over nine times in the first quarter alone.  But eventually, the errors compounded, and the Ducks’ shots began to fall — Oregon never really challenged the rest of the way. 

Through it all, Scott was terrific, keeping the Ducks engaged and in the game throughout. 

Oregon’s defense was terrific throughout, forcing 23 turnovers which they parlayed into 25 points. 

“They didn’t handle the pressure that well,” Graves said of the Purdue turnovers, 17 of which came in the first half of action. “They handled it a lot better in the second half.”

There was also no answer the Boilermakers could conjure for Phillipina Kyei, Oregon’s 6 foot-11 senior who showed the many ways she can affect the game in her 16 minutes. She finished with 12 points and nine rebounds as she rounded into form, repeatedly drawing double-teams which then opened up spots for her teammates to do damage. 

It was a particularly lively crowd for a seemingly inconspicuous game, fans shouted loudly after each foul call, with tensions escalating after a momentary game stoppage due to a clock issue. 

In terms of the actual gameplay, well, the Ducks gave them plenty to cheer about. 

The Ducks will stay home, taking on Iowa on Sunday at 2 p.m.

“It’s huge, for us to be back at home,” Kelly said. “Every win in this matters, for us to stack these home wins is huge… we got one today, we’ve got a big one Sunday, so just gotta continue to stack wins.”