Oregon Women’s Basketball Dominates #9 UConn in Home Upset

Written Story by Justin Grossweiner

Following a thrilling overtime victory to #7 Arizona at home on Saturday, the Oregon Ducks Women’s basketball team put on a show at Matthew Knight Arena defeating #9 UConn 72-59. Te-Hina Paopao built off of her career high on Saturday with another stellar performance finishing with 22 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists. For the second straight game Sedona Prince (14 points, 5 rebounds) came off the bench, but her size and shooting skill were critical for Oregon’s victory. Guard Caroline Ducharme led the way for UConn with 21 points, and forward Olivia Nelson-Ododa chipped in 17 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists on 7-9 shooting.

After starting off the game down 10-0 the Ducks went on a 18-0 run starting with 2:31 left in the 1st quarter. Down 14-8, the run sparked by Paopao and Prince gave them a 26-14 lead midway through the 2nd quarter. Prince found her rhythm during that stretch, at one point scoring a 10-0 run by herself.

Oregon’s defense was a critical piece of Oregon’s victory. The Ducks mostly sat in a 3-2 zone which the Huskies were unable to shoot out of all game. UConn’s Ducharme was posting up some of Oregon’s small guards, but as a team the Ducks defense was able to swarm from side to side. As a team the Huskies shot 3-18 from three as the Ducks forced UConn into a lot of contested three-point shots.

In the second half of the game Oregon held off the Huskies after several runs pushed the game to single digits. While the Ducks didn’t dominate as much as they did in the first half, the advantage was enough to keep the Ducks comfortably ahead down the stretch. The only negative takeaway from Oregon’s side was a late injury to 2021’s leading scorer Nyara Sabally. She went down hard with around 4 minutes left in the game and was clutching her right knee in serious pain. She returned to the sidelines during the last few minutes with an icepack on her knee, but it will be something to watch out for going forward.

After two wins against top-10 teams the face two unranked opponents next weekend in Washington and Washington State. Oregon will certainly look to keep their momentum after putting themselves back into the national discussion.

Audio Story by Austin Ota

Postgame Audio:

Kelly Graves

Te-Hina Paopao