By John Evans
EUGENE, OR - This Friday, Oregon Women’s Basketball will face off against the visiting North Dakota State Bison in the first round of the Women’s NIT postseason tournament. The game will tip-off at 7:00 PM at Matthew Knight Arena, as the Ducks will look to embark on their postseason journey. Oregon comes into the game with a 17-14 record, including a 7-11 record in Pac-12 play. They are coming off the back of a 76-65 loss in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 conference tournament to Stanford, who subsequently went on to earn a #1 seed in the Women’s March Madness bracket. The visiting Bison enter the matchup with an 18-11 record overall, as they finished second in the Summit League with a 12-6 record before they lost to Kansas City 71-64 in the quarterfinals of the Summit League tournament.
Oregon
It was an up-and-down regular season for the Ducks that saw the highs of wins over the #18 Arkansas Razorbacks and the #14 Arizona Wildcats, but also saw the lows of a seven-game losing streak that saw them not win a game between January 27 and February 23. The Ducks are led by senior guard Endyia Rogers, an All-Pac-12 team selection, who averaged a career-high 16.5 points per game on 54.5% true shooting, the most efficient of her college career. In her second season with the Ducks after transferring from USC, Rogers has scored over 30 points on three different occasions, and almost did again as she poured in a heroic 28-point effort to lead Oregon past the Washinton Huskies in the first round of the Pac-12 conference tournament. Overall, she has averaged 19.5 points and 2.5 assists per game since the Ducks snapped their seven-game losing streak in late February, although her true shooting has dropped to 46.4% as she has tried to put the team on her back in three winning efforts. She is flanked in the starting lineup by junior guard, Te-Hina Paopao; sophomore center, Phillipina Kyei; and the star freshman duo of forward, Grace VanSlooten and guard, Chance Gray, both of whom ranked among the top 15 in the 2022 recruiting class. The Ducks will be looking to make a deep postseason run in the NIT as they try to gather momentum for next season, and in order to do so, the rest of the team will need to step up to support Rogers and her incredible play as of late.
North Dakota State
North Dakota State enters Friday’s game following a disappointing loss to the Kansas City Roos in the quarterfinals of the Summit League tournament. The Bison finished second during the Summit League regular season with a 12-6 record in-conference, and an 18-11 record overall. The team features two double-digit scorers in their starting backcourt, senior, Heaven Hamling and freshman, Elle Evans. Both received Summit League honors, as Hamling was named to the All-Summit League First Team and Evans was crowned as the Summit League Freshman of the Year. The Bison have a balanced attack on both sides of the ball, having finished fourth in points per game and third in points allowed per game in the Summit League, and averaged a +3.2 point margin overall.
Final Overview
Overall, I think this should probably be a pretty easy win for the Ducks, as they rank a whole 167 spots higher in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Net Rankings. Both teams had similar records, but the Ducks played in a much tougher conference and subsequently played a much harder schedule, as North Dakota State’s only win against a major-conference team came against Minnesota, a team that finished second to last in the Big Ten. Additionally, the Bison are not a strong three-point shooting team, as they hit on only 32% of their threes on the season. The Ducks should try to use the strong shot-blocking presence of Phillipina Kyei, who ranked sixth in the Pac-12 with 1.3 blocks per game, to force North Dakota State to try to hit shots from the outside. If Oregon can come out of this one with a win, as they should, they will then face the winner of BYU and Rice.