Written and Audio Stories by Austin Ota

Matthew Knight Arena was packed in pink for the Oregon Women’s Basketball game, as Oregon faced the UC Berkeley Bears in a Friday night game. The Ducks have been under criticism for their poor shooting of late, and their underwhelming results mixed with below average shot selection to start the night proved why such criticism has been warranted. Oregon trotted out their consistent starting lineup of Te-Hina Paopao, Maddie Scherr, Sydney Parrish, Endyia Rogers, and Nyara Sabally, who combined to begin the game converting on just one of their first nine shot attempts. However, solid defense, combined with solid bench scoring, kept the Ducks in the game throughout the first quarter. Sedona Prince, relegated to a bench role, came in and drained her first jumper of the night, something Eugenians have grown accustomed to seeing for the 6’7” forward. Rogers, who came into the game averaging 14.4 points a game as the lead guard, had her floater working and hit three straight early in the night. She finished the first quarter with a team high seven, and on a night that the Ducks needed scoring, she and Prince held the game in check. Speaking of Prince, her block on Dalayah Daniels ended the first quarter, with Oregon also ending on a 7-0 run. After one quarter, Oregon led by a score of 13-12.

Continuing with the theme of defense, Oregon Head Coach Kelly Graves elected to begin the second quarter with a lineup of Paopao and Prince as well as Kylee Watson, Chanaya Pinto, and Ahlise Hurst, all who have been constantly applauded for their defensive contributions to the rotation. It proved beneficial, as Oregon forced three straight turnovers and were able to turn that into easy offense, scoring often and early in the second quarter. While Hurst’s playing time took a hit when Paopao and Rogers returned from injury, she had five steals within the first five minutes of the second period. Though maybe not as impressive as the defense, the ball distribution was outstanding, as the first eight points for Oregon were scored by five different players. Ironically, when the defensive stoppers left the floor, so did Oregon’s offense, as they were held scoreless for nearly three minutes. Their best players struggled early, as Paopao had two inefficient points and Sabally did not hit a field goal in the first half. Surprisingly, the Ducks led at the half by a score of 25-19, despite not hitting a three pointer.

Cal began the second half with phenomenal defense, as they turned the table on an Oregon team that had just done the same to them. Oregon began the third scoreless for nearly two full minutes until a Sabally floater extended their lead to six. The Ducks continued to get good looks but subsequently continued to fail on converting them, as a usually strong outside shooting team would end the game without a triple. However, it’s not as if the Bears fared much better, as there was a three minute stretch in the middle of the quarter where neither team scored from the field for over three minutes, with Oregon going on a one for nine field goal drought. A basket by Daniels, the only double digit scorer at the time, gave Cal the lead with 2:29 to go in the third quarter. Philippina Kyei, who herself has seen a minute uptick of late, was a major beneficiary of the slow paced style of the Bears, and hit a couple times from down low to keep the Bears at bay. Her biggest play came at the end of the third, where she fought her way through Cal to grab an offensive rebound off of a Paopao free throw miss, and she tipped in the bucket at the buzzer to extend the Ducks lead to five, 37-32.

As a contrast to the rest of the game, the fourth quarter began as a shootout. Prince hit two fifteen footers, and on the other end, Jayda Curry, a 20 point per game scorer, pulled up from about thirty-five feet and drained her first triple of the night. A poor foul by Sydney Parrish contesting a corner three allowed Jazlen Green to go to the line and convert two of three, bringing the Oregon lead back to just two. Back and forth went the Ducks and the Bears, as Jazlen Green converted a couple big jumpers and helped to nibble at Oregon’s lead. It seemed for most of the second half that the Bears would tie the game up, yet stifling defense and big offensive sets from the guards prevented that from ever happening. Even without hitting a three pointer, Oregon defeated the Bears, 52-47.

Audio Story

Postgame Audio

Sedona Prince

Head Coach Kelly Graves