The offensive well finally went dry for the Ducks.
Baylor got the best of the 10th-seeded Ducks last week 69-46.
Armed with senior Steffanie Blackmon and junior Sophia Young, the No. 2-seeded Bears — which have since advanced to the Elite Eight with a 30-3 overall record — defeated an Oregon team caught off guard in a second-round matchup in the Tempe Regional at Bank of America Arena in Seattle.
The Ducks walked away this season embracing a 21-10 overall record.
“It was a very disappointing loss for us,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said after the March 21 defeat. “I think the reason why it hurts is because of the year that we have had and the commitment that our players have put into this season.”
Oregon, which paced its offense with Baylor’s for the first 12 minutes of the game, went into the locker room at halftime at the low end of a 33-18 score after a 19-2 Bears scoring spurt that closed out the half.
“Defensively, they were a very tough team to crack,” Smith said about Baylor. “We put ourselves into a hole with our 16 turnovers in the first half, which they forced us into.”
Baylor stole the ball 18 times, accounting for a majority of Oregon’s
23 turnovers in the game.
Oregon’s Cathrine Kraayeveld made only 3 of 11 field-goal attempts but still managed to record a
team-high 15 points in the loss by converting 8 of 9 free throws. The senior forward also led the Ducks with eight boards.
Baylor forward Young finished with eight rebounds and a game-high
25 points for the Bears. Center Blackmon scored 17 points.
“Baylor’s a good team,” said Oregon’s Brandi Davis, whose team shot 34 percent (15 of 44) from the field. “We came in here ready to go and ready to bring it to them, but they weathered the storm, and unfortunately we couldn’t.”
The Ducks’ first-half collapse against Baylor was surprising, as it came on the heels of a 58-55 upset of seventh-seeded Texas Christian two days earlier.
That first-round shocker supported the Ducks’ argument that they deserved a higher seed. However, the contest almost turned into another nightmare for Oregon.
A poor perimeter game haunted the Ducks in the first half, though they were able to persevere by holding TCU senior Sandora Irvin — a shot-blocking legend and TCU’s main offensive threat — to two points.
The game sat at a 27-27 tie going into halftime.
TCU garnered an eight-point
advantage on two different occasions, but Oregon stayed within range, even though Irvin collected 12 points in the second half.
The Ducks put together a 17-4 scoring run in the second half to pull ahead of TCU. Some clutch long-distance shooting in the final minutes of the contest from junior Brandi Davis gave them a 55-50 lead.
“We just needed a couple shots for us to go, and when that happened a couple things happened,” Smith said. “We dug a little bit deeper defensively, and we got the crowd into it, which really helped us offensively.”
The Ducks shot 39 percent from the floor and held TCU to a 27.6 shooting percentage.
“We wanted this big win a lot,” Davis said. “We went out there and basically what we said for the second half was, ‘We are going to play all heart,’ and that’s exactly what we did.”
Kraayeveld broke out for 23 points on 7 of 12 shooting in her first game in Seattle since 2002. With that performance — along with her reputation — she caught the attention of and earned respect from opposing teams and their coaches.
“I’m quite impressed; that was the first time that I had seen her,” Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson said. “She, in a lot of ways, reminds you of a Larry Bird on the female side. She may not have blazing speed, and she may not jump out of the gym, but she is hard to guard, and has figured out how to compete and make you look pretty bad defensively.”
Plagued by foul problems against Baylor, senior center Andrea Bills was limited to 18 points (8 of 20) and 12 rebounds in the tournament.
Senior point guard Corrie Mizusawa made her usual contributions with eight assists in each of Oregon’s postseason contests.
“I think that playing in the postseason really helps us,” Smith said. “We are a very young team besides those three seniors.
“Our players can’t see it now, but they will see when they wake up tomorrow that we have a great future with some great returning players.”
Oregon’s outcome in the first round was on par with the results of the four other Pac-10 teams in the tournament: All five squads
advanced to the second round.
“Getting five teams into the tournament, there was a lot of turned up noses at that,” Smith said. “But I think having all five teams win those games, it speaks to the incredible steps that the Pac-10 has taken to become a national conference.”
