Eugene, OR – After a four-game road trip the No. 3-ranked Oregon women returned home to face the Washington schools in their final regular season games. First up was Washington State. The Cougars, coming into the game with a 4-12 Pac-12 record weren’t expected to provide any sort of test for the Ducks. Oregon entered the game on a 14-game winning streak and are playing as well as any team in the country. That proved to be the case as the Ducks opened the game by scoring the first 13 points and the Pac-12 champions coasted to a 88-57 victory. Oregon big three of Sabrina Ionescu, 12 points, 5 rebounds, 12 assists), Ruthy Hebard (28 points, 14 rebounds) and Satou Sabally (22 points, 7 rebounds) led them to the win. It was Hebard’s 54th double-double, third on the all-time Oregon list. Once again Matthew Knight Arena was filled to capacity (12,364).
Ionescu was more of a facilitator in this game, only taking five first half shots and ten in the game. She was able to feed both Hebard and Sabally repeatedly inside. Hebard and Sabally were both unstoppable tonight as they shot a combined 20-of-30 in scoring 50 total points. Washington State’s best player 6-0 senior Borislava Hristova, from Bulgaria scored 14 points on 7-of-17 from the field. Jovana Subacic, a 6-4 redshirt junior from Serbia made some nice shots inside in scoring 17 points on 8-of-11 from the field.
Oregon expanded their 13-0 start into a 30-11 lead at the close of the first quarter. Ionescu had eight first quarter assists, Hebard connected on all four of her shots, scoring ten points and Sabally added eight on 4-of-6 shooting. The Cougars were somewhat more effective in the second quarter, but Oregon still expanded their lead to 53-26 at the half. Inoescu registered her tenth assist on a nice feed to Hebard with 2:25 remaining. Hebard led the Ducks at the break with 20 points on a perfect 8-of-8 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the foul line. She also had six rebounds as did Sabally who scored 12 points. Ionescu only took five shots and had four first half points to go with her ten assists. The Ducks shot 71 percent (22-of-31) in the half and enjoyed a 16-8 rebounding edge. The Cougars shot 44 percent from the field but only 2-of-10 from distance.
Oregon extended their lead to 77-42 after three quarters. Sabally added ten points in the quarter and Hebard had eight points and six rebounds. Washington State started out the fourth quarter playing well, scoring the first nine points. Oregon returned Ionescu to the floor for a bit and the Ducks coasted to the 31-point win.
The Ducks shot 56 percent from the field and did most of their damage inside, only going 6-of-17 from distance. They out-rebounded the Cougars by 13, assisted on 22 of their 32 made baskets and only committed eight turnovers..
Following the game the Oregon women celebrated their Pac-12 championship. Oregon (27-2, 16-1) finishes up the regular season against Washington at Noon on Sunday. The game has been sold out for weeks as the crowd will celebrate Senior Day for Ionescu, Hebard, Sabally and Minyon Moore. Washington State (11-18, 4-13) goes to Corvallis to face Oregon State 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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