Eugene, OR – The No. 3-ranked Oregon Duck women took on the Washington Huskies in the regular season finale. It was a sold out crowd at Matthew Knight Arena to cheer on the Pac-12 champions and honor seniors Sabrina Ionescu, Ruthy Hebard and Minyon Moore and junior Satou Sabally who is skipping her senior year to enter the WNBA draft. Once again, Oregon was dominant and the 12,364 attendees witnessed another amazing performance as the nation’s top scoring offense cruised to a 92-56 win. Oregon remains perfect at home in the season at 15-0.
In the first period, the Ducks scored the first seven points of the game led by Ionescu who served up two excellent drives and dishes to Hebard. Washington charged back to take a 14-12 lead with a three pointer by T.T. Watkins from the corner. Taylor Chavez came off the bench to respond with a three from the wing to put Oregon back in front for good on an Ionescu assist. Both teams shot 3-of-6 from the perimeter in the opening period as Oregon led 19-18.
Chavez, a sophomore, finished the game with 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting and grabbed four rebounds. Sabally, who is projected as a top-5 pick in the upcoming WNBA draft, caught fire in the second quarter as the Ducks went on a 22-2 run to stretch the lead. Sabally scored 13 of her 20 points (6-for-11 FG) in the quarter. She also pulled down five rebounds and dished out two assists. While Oregon kept looking to push the ball at any opportunity, they also stepped up their defense forcing eight turnovers in the quarter. For the game, Washington turned the ball over 22 times and Oregon scored 28 points off those turnovers. The Ducks held the Huskies to 27 percent shooting and wrapped up the half with a 46-24 lead.
Oregon was in complete control in the second half led by their three seniors. The pesky grad transfer, Minyon Moore filled up the stat sheet with 11 points (4-of-7 FG), six assists, five rebounds and three steals. As a team, Oregon had 17 steals in the game.
The two all-time greats in Oregon history, Hebard and Ionescu played the pick and roll to perfection. Throughout the game, Hebard was a force inside, whether she was posting up or Ionescu was feeding her rolling to the basket. The Ducks piled on 48 points in the paint versus the Huskies’ 22 points. Hebard, in her final home game in an Oregon uniform, scored 24 points (10-of-15 FG) and collected seven rebounds in 27 minutes of play. Ionescu continued to add to her amazing career totals as she recorded another double-double scoring 13 points (4-for-10 FG) and 11 assists. Ionescu now has 1,064 assists in her career with roughly 30 percent of those assists going to Hebard.
Washington’s leading scorer Amber Melgoza (17.0 PPG) struggled this afternoon, shooting 3-for-13 from the field to tally 10 points. Mai-Loni Henson scored 11 points (5-of-10 FG) with five rebounds and four assists. Both Melgoza and Henson played their final regular season game for the Huskies.
Oregon (28-2, 17-1) finished first in the Pac-12 and earned a first round bye in the conference tournament in Las Vegas which begins March 5th. Washington (13-16, 5-13) finished ninth in the conference and will take on eighth seed Utah (13-16, 6-12).
This article was written by Chad Mart, a correspondent and scout for NetScouts Basketball. You can follow us on Facebook, or on twitter.
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