Eugene, OR – The Oregon women have been up and down this year. Coming off two losses in Arizona, they beat a decent Washington State team on the road by 53 points without one of their better players. Then they split a series with Oregon State, winning on the road and losing at home. It was a better result for the Ducks this afternoon as they rode an efficient first-half offense to a 67-53 win over UCLA (11-9, 6-7). Endyia Rogers led Oregon with 16 points on an efficient 6-of-8 overall and 3-of-4 from distance. She added three rebounds and four assists. TeHina Paopao added 15 points with six rebounds and four assists. All her rebounds and assists came in the first half. Nyara Sabally helped out with 12 points and ten rebounds.
Oregon’s surprisingly poor shooting has been a major factor in their losses this year, most recently shooting 4-of-21 on 3s in their recent home loss to Oregon State. That wasn’t a factor in the start of this game as they made four of their first five from deep to take a 20-9 lead after the first quarter. Rogers made her two attempts from distance and scored eight first quarter points on 3-of-3 from the field. 
In the second quarter the Ducks long distance efficiency went down, hitting only 2-of-7 three-point attempts in the period but they connected on 7-of-11 two-point shots. They wound up shooting 52 percent overall in the half and expended their lead to 40-20 at the break. The Ducks outrebounded the Bruins 20-11 including 6-2 on the offensive boards and had an extremely efficient 11 assists on 16 made baskets.
Paopao had a strong half with ten points on 4-of-8 shooting and added six rebounds and four assists. Sabally and Rogers added eight points each. UCLA shot only 9-of-25 (36%) overall and made only 1-of-5 3s.
UCLA started to make some headway in the third quarter and crept within 50-37 on a three-point play after a rebound by Dominique Onu (16 points). Point guard Charisma Osborne (16 points), UCLA’s leading scorer at 17.5 points per game, brought the Bruins to within ten points (54-44) at the close of the quarter. UCLA scored 24 points in the quarter compared to 20 points in the entire first half. The closest the Bruins were able to get the rest of the way was eight points after making the first field goal of the fourth quarter. The Ducks maintained a double-digit lead the remainder of the game.
Oregon’s offensive efficiency tailed off in the second half. They ended the game shooting 47 percent overall and 8-of-18 (44 percent) from distance. Oregon’s defense was effective throughout the game, holding the Bruins to 31 percent shooting overall and only 3-of-18 (17 percent) from deep. Oregon had a 38-33 rebounding advantage.
Oregon (17-8, 10-4) will face the Bay Area teams at home next, starting with Cal on Friday night and followed with Stanford on 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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