Shooting woes sink Oregon in loss at No. 3 Stanford
The Oregon women’s basketball team delivered one of its brightest defensive performances of the season Saturday against the Pac-12’s top team.
But whatever good work the Ducks did on the defensive end of the floor was negated by one of the worst shooting performances in recent program history.
The No. 3-ranked Stanford Cardinal topped Oregon, 62-54, at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto to improve to 21-2 on the season and 9-1 in Pac-12 play. The Ducks, in turn, drop to 14-7 and 5-5 in conference play and are likely to remain on the outside looking in when the AP top-25 is released later this week.
As a team, the Ducks shot 20-for-80 (25%) on the afternoon. That’s the worst mark by an Oregon team since the 2016-17 season when they shot 28.3% in a loss to Oregon State.
Chance Gray led Oregon with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting and Phillipina Kyei finished with 12 points and 17 rebounds.
The Ducks’ veteran backcourt duo of Endyia Rogers and Te-Hina Paopao combined for just 11 points on 5-of-28 shooting.
Oregon’s shooting struggles were due, in large part, to a stellar defensive performance from Stnaford’s All-American forward, Cameron Brink. The Portland, Ore., native recorded her first career triple-double and finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 blocks.
Fellow All-American Hailey Jones tallied eight points and 16 boards.
The first half proved to be one of Oregon’s worst of the Kelly Graves era from a shooting standpoint. The Ducks went just 7-for-40 shooting during the first two quarters and were 2-for-16 from the field in the first quarter.
Their struggles were largely due to the influence of Brink. The 6-foot-4 junior blocked seven shots and grabbed six rebounds during the first half alone.
But when Brink went to the bench late in the half, Oregon capitalized on its opportunity.
With Brink out of the game, the Ducks closed out the half on a 9-0 run to trim the deficit to 27-21 at halftime. They were able to stay in the game due to an equally woeful Stanford shooting performance
The Cardinal shot just 19-of-52 (36%) from the field in the first half and 5-of-20 (25%) from three.
But Stanford’s shooters woke up in the second half.
Sophomore forward Brooke Demetre knocked down three three-pointers within the first eight minutes of the third quarter to push the Cardinal lead to 44-33. By the time the third quarter ended, that lead stood at 46-37.
Oregon never found a way to respond after that. Brink’s defense continued to be influential during the final period. She blocked two more shots in the fourth quarter to notch her first career triple-double, and the Ducks only trimmed the Stanford lead to single-digits in the final seconds when Chance Gray drilled a three-pointer on Oregon’s final possession.
Oregon will look to get back on track next week when it hosts No. 25 Colorado (16-5, 7-3) Friday at 7 p.m. PT. Then, the Ducks will host No. 9 Utah (18-2, 8-2) Sunday at 2 p.m. PT.
