Eugene, OR – The No. 1-ranked Oregon Ducks (3-0) continued their early season domination against less than stellar competition as they rolled to a 99-63 win over the Texas Southern Tigers (1-1) before 9.159 fans at Matthew Knight Arena this afternoon. Beside skill level the Tigers were relatively short in stature and had no one to defend inside against the Oregon bigs.
Ruthy Hebard had a field day, particularly in the first half and finished with 31 points and 13 rebounds before leaving the game near the close of the third quarter. Sabrina Ionescu took it easy offensively today mostly concentrating on distributing the ball and grabbing rebounds. She would up with yet another triple-double, the 19th of her career, an NCAA record for both men and women and finished with 10 points, 13 rebounds and 14 assists. She secured the triple-double with 5:18 remaining in the third quarter. Ciani Cryor, Texas Southern’s 5-5 point guard, led the visitors with 22 points on 8-of-20 shooting. She also registered six assists and six rebounds.
Oregon scored the first ten points of the game and lead 24-10 after the first quarter. They expanded the lead to 52-21 at the half. Senior 6-4 center Hebard had 21 points and nine rebounds at the half as she scored continually, mostly uncontested. She shot 9-of-12 in the half and grabbed five offensive rebounds. Ionescu only took four first half shots but grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out seven assists to go along with her seven first half points.
The Ducks replaced most of their starters near the close of the third quarter which they closed out with a Lucy Cochrane lay-up and an 85-41 lead. That left a final quarter where the Duck bench got quite a bit of action. Backup center 6-6 junior Lydia Giomi continued her solid play with 10 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore guard Taylor Chavez, starting in place of Satou Sabally who is in Germany competing for their national team, continued her hot shooting. She scored 25 points on 6-of-9 three-point shooting in Oregon’s last win against Utah State. Today she connected on all of her three three-point attempts and scored 11 points.
Oregon goes on the road for their first true test of the year, playing at Syracuse next Sunday afternoon.
This article was written by Carl Berman, Managing Partner of NetScouts Basketball. You can follow us on Facebook, or on twitter.
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