The image is hard to shake from the mind.
The image of Nicole Powell celebrating her two free throws that put Stanford over the edge, 75-74, against Oregon in early January. With just a few ticks on the clock, the Ducks could not convert.
All of that after Oregon had taken the lead, seemingly for good, with just 3.3 seconds left.
“I think you have to take that and learn from it,” sophomore Kedzie Gunderson said. “Definitely, you don’t want to forget it. That was an amazing game, and we worked very hard.
“That was a heartbreaker, and we’re definitely going to want to get that one back.”
Now, the Ducks must go south to get their fifth Pacific-10 Conference win of the season and will have to do it against one of the best home teams in the nation tonight at 7 p.m.
The No. 6 Cardinal are 25-1 since the start of last season, and have lost just 10 games at Maples Pavilion in the past five seasons.
The Ducks (8-12 overall, 4-7 Pac-10) have not won there since March 5, 1987.
“Against Stanford, we played very hard and very well,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. “We’re hoping to go down there and certainly continue that. I think although we played very hard and at times, well offensively, against Stanford here, there are some things we can improve upon. I think that will be our goal.”
How the Ducks deal with Maples will be key. The structure seats 7,391 — the smallest in the Pac-10 — but has been a “house of horrors,” as Smith called it, for opponents over the years, evidenced by Stanford’s dominance.
“The mindset is just focus on what you can control, and you can’t control the house of horrors,” Smith said. “You can control how you perform, your effort, your intensity and your togetherness. If we focus on ourselves and what we can do, then the other things will take care of themselves.”
Since squeaking by Oregon, the Cardinal have been a mixed bag, at least by their standards.
Stanford (17-2, 9-1) defeated Washington State, Washington and UCLA — by just two, 80-78 — before losing its first Pac-10 game since the 2000-01 season. USC played the Cardinal tough, jumping out to a 49-35 halftime lead on Jan. 26, and held off the strong Stanford offense for the win.
But to say the Cardinal are less of a team is another statement.
“They’re sixth in the nation, and you know, we’re not ranked, not doing so well, so we just have to go in there and play as hard as we can,” senior Alissa Edwards said. “We can play with them. We’ll take that going into the game and have that confidence.”
As for Oregon, the Ducks are coming off a so-so weekend after visits by Arizona State and Arizona.
The Ducks dominated from the start against the Sun Devils and came away with an impressive 68-52 victory.
But two days later, Oregon was another team, starting off slow against the Wildcats before improving its play late in each half. Arizona squeaked by with a 71-66 win, and Oregon went to a tie for seventh in the Pac-10 standings.
“I think we made progress,” Smith said. “We certainly, defensively, were much better, limiting Arizona to 71 (points) here when they had 96 at their place. And the same thing with Arizona State.
“So I think we’ve turned the corner defensively, and that’s a big focus for us for the rest of the year.”
The Ducks will need that defensive focus against the Cardinal, the Pac-10’s fourth-ranked team in points per game at 71.6.