Unlike their last game, which required the Ducks to overcome a halftime deficit to win, the Oregon women’s basketball team trailed for all but 15 seconds on the way to an 84-66 victory over the Utah Utes on Sunday afternoon at Matthew Knight Arena. This was their fourth win in five games.
The Ducks (14-6, 4-4) put together a strong defensive effort in the first half, forcing Utah (13-6, 2-6) to miss eight of their final nine shots of the first half. Overall the Utes were only able to score 6 points in the second quarter. The Ducks, who had not held a halftime lead in their first six games of Pac-12 play, took a 14-point lead into the break.
“We continue to build every day on defense and I think that’s going to be our backbone throughout the season,” freshman guard Sabrina Ionescu said.
Offensively, the Ducks were led by Ionescu and freshman Ruthy Hebard. Ionescu finished with 14 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds for her third triple-double in sixteen career games. She missed four games earlier this season with a broken thumb, but is one triple-double away from breaking Bev Smith’s record for most career triple-doubles in school history.
“She just plays really hard,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said. “A lot of those boards she gets because she’s tough and knows how to get to the right spot.”
Hebard fell one rebound short of completing a double-double by halftime. She had 13 points and nine rebounds at halftime and finished the game with 25 points and 10 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season.
“That’s getting it done; those are two very special players,” Graves said about Ionescu and Hebard.
The focus for the Ducks in this game was to limit Utah forward Emily Potter. She came into the game ranked ninth nationally with 3.06 blocked shots per game and finished with five blocked shots, but was held to 12 points on 6-of-13 shooting in 27 minutes.
“I think the key was to just be physical with her and make her shoot uncomfortable shots,” Hebard said.
Despite finishing above her average in blocked shots per game, the Ducks defense held Potter scoreless until the 6:38 mark of the second quarter.
“We wanted to get the basketball inside,” Graves said. “We wanted to make Potter work, and I thought we did that early.”
Next up for the Ducks is the Civil War on Friday at Matthew Knight Arena. Oregon will then travel to Corvallis two days later to face the Beavers again at Gil Colosseu.
Follow Zak Laster on Twitter: @zlast3445
The post Ionescu and Hebard each deliver big performances in Oregon’s 84-66 victory over Utah appeared first on Emerald Media.