Corvallis, OR – The Oregon Ducks women’s team headed up the road to Corvallis to face their rivals, the Oregon State Beavers on Sunday afternoon. The Beavers came off a surprising home loss to Utah while Oregon won their first four games of the season including two Pac-12 routs. Oregon never let the Beavers into this game running away with an 79-59 win.
Freshman point guard Te-Hina Paopao continued her excellent play scoring 22 points, hitting 4-of-5 three-pointers and added three assists, two rebounds and one steal while committing only one turnover in 25 minutes. Taylor Mikesell, the 5-11 Maryland transfer added 21 points, hitting 5-of-8 from deep. Paopao and Mikesell combined to shoot 17-of-27 and hit 9-of-13 of their three-pointers.
Both teams started off the game slowly on offense with the exception of Oregon’s Mikesell. She connected on 4-of-6 three-pointers to give the Ducks a 21-11 lead after the first quarter. Other than Mikesell, Oregon was 4-of-12 from the field including 1-of-6 on 3s. The Beavers were 4-of-15 in the quarter with their key inside player 6-4 sophomore Taylor Jones shooting just 1-of-5.
Jones, initially bothered by Oregon’s length inside, tried to keep the Beavers close in the second quarter. She scored eight points to help Oregon State stay within ten points at 32-22. But then the Ducks took over. Three straight three-pointers, two from Paopao and one from Mikesell extended Oregon’s lead to 19. Then after two Beaver free throws Nyara Sabally (eight points) scored inside, then Paopao stole the inbounds pass and scored at the buzzer to give the Ducks a dominant 45-24 halftime lead. Paopao scored ten points in the quarter while Oregon shot 10-of-20 from the field including 4-of-6 from deep. The Ducks were 9-of-18 on 3s at the half while the Beavers were 2-of-8.
Oregon maintained their lead throughout the second half. Paopao hit a mid-range jumper at the close of the third period for a 67-41 Duck lead. Oregon State received some energy in the final stanza from 6-9 center Jelena Mitrovic. The redshirt freshman from Serbia scored eight fourth quarter points (11 overall) and showed promise for the rest of this season and for her future. The Beavers came alive too late but did outscore Oregon 18-12 in the fourth quarter.
For the game Oregon out shot Oregon State 44 to 36 percent. They made 12-of-24 3s compared to 3-of-19 (16 percent) for the Beavers. Oregon’s ball control was exceptional with only seven turnovers in the game compared to 12 for the Beavers. Oregon had 25 assists against their four turnovers, an exceptional 3.6 to 1 ratio. Four of Oregon’s turnovers were in the fourth quarter. Their ball movement over the first three quarters was exceptional.
Both schools head to Washington to face both Washington schools this coming week. Oregon (5-0) faces Washington first on Saturday, then Washington State on Monday. Oregon State (3-2) plays Washington State first.
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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