Lexi Bando and Sabrina Ionescu each scored 14 points, Maite Cazorla added 11 and the Ducks shot 44.2 percent from the field, but were unable to knock off No. 7 Mississippi State (5-0) on Friday in Honolulu, losing 75-63.

The Ducks (4-1) cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 62-57 with 3:47 remaining in their opening game of the Rainbow Wahine Showdown, but a layup and a 3-pointer gave the Bulldogs a 67-57 lead.

“Bottom line, we couldn’t contain them,” head coach Kelly Graves said in his postgame radio interview. “We expect to be a good basketball team, and play deep and all these kind of things. We need to be able to defend elite guards. … We weren’t able to do it tonight.”

Oregon found itself in foul trouble early. In all, the Ducks committed 27 fouls compared to the Bulldogs’ 19.

The Ducks, coming off a win over No. 24 Michigan State on Tuesday, trailed narrowly, 20-17, after the first quarter. Bando scored the first seven points of the game for the Ducks while Jacinta Vandenberg and Ruthy Hebard both had two fouls in the first quarter.

“You become tenative and it affects everything,” Graves said of foul trouble.

The Bulldogs took a 39-30 lead to halftime after not allowing the Ducks to score in the final three minutes before intermission.

Oregon mounted a 9-2 run coming out of haltime to cut the Mississippi State lead to 41-39 with 6:39 left in the third. The Bulldogs led 53-47 after three quarters.

“All night long we were scrambling to took organized,” Graves said. “Obviously we played these guys tough, there’s no doubt. We had chances to make it a real interesting game … but ultimately we were exposed defensively. We just have to get better.”

The Bulldogs opened their lead to nine points with 4:41 remaining, but the Ducks got back into the game with buckets from Hebard and Cazorla, making it 62-57 with 3:47 left. Mississippi State, which advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 last year, stretched its lead to 10 points at 67-57 with 2:27 left to put the game away.

Victoria Vivians finished with 17 points for Mississippi State and Morgan William had 14.

“I’m proud of our effort,” Graves said. “We went toe to toe with a top 10 team. How many juniors and seniors do they have? This is a veteran group that’s been together and we hung with them. That being said, I don’t believe in moral victories. … But I believe we’ll learn from it and grow.”

Oregon plays its second of three games in Honululu on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. PST against Hawaii.

Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne

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