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tsslB
Women's Basketball
vs.
Washington State
Come watch the Ducks
take a bite out off the Cougars
Saturday
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Need another reminder?
even the weather.
UO is still a work in progress
■ I ne ducks Deal
Washington by 14 points,
but a mostly uninspired
performance leaves more
to be desired
By Mirjam Swanson
Oregon Daily Emerald
Lisa Bowyer, Sonja Curtis and
Natasha O’Brien were there, help
ing unfurl last season’s Pacific-10
Conference championship banner.
More than 5,000 fans were there
for the Oregon women’s basketball
team’s Pac-10-home opener, too.
They were there to celebrate last
season’s championship. To wel
come back the Oregon women’s
basketball team from its six
straight weeks of road games. And
to cheer on their team against a
Washington program that they’ve
grown to seriously disdain.
It seemed like all the makings
for one heckuva fun game at
McArthur Court were in place.
It really should have been the
perfect atmosphere for the Ducks
(12-4 overall, 3-1 Pac-10) to get re
juvenated, for them to shake off
any and all of their road woes.
They could’ve used it to bounce
back from last weekend’s embar
rassment at Stanford and also to
reconvince themselves that they
are indeed a championship-cal
iber team.
When time expired Thursday
night Oregon was a 65-51 winner.
And everyone left happy but hard
ly satisfied with the Ducks’ third
Pac-10 win of the season.
“Right now, we’re happy to get
wins when.we can,” said sopho
more point guard Shaquala
Williams, who had a game-high 20
points, but hit only 5 of 17 shots.
“Of course we’d like to play better,
but we’re happy with a win. ”
Head coach Jody Runge echoed
those sentiments, almost verbatim.
“We’re glad we got the win,” she
said. “We know we need to play
better than that. We need to keep
working on it.”
A win is a win, no doubt. Espe
cially in the midst of such a long
season — made to seem longer by
the 10-game road trip.
But Oregon is lacking the flair
and energy that it had prior to the
monster trip. Not even a Mac Court
homecoming juiced up the Ducks.
The crowd wanted so badly to
erupt Thursday. And except for
some timely three-pointers by
Lindsey Dion—who is still recov
ering from a concussion she suf
fered last Thursday and is playing
with torn cartilage in her knee —
the fans never got a chance.
Credit Washington’s defensive
Women
continued from page 7
for-17 from the field, but paced
the team with 20 points, two as
sists and two steals. Brianne
Meharry, the only other Duck to
score in double-figures, finished
with 13 points, six rebounds, two
assists, two steals and a block.
Although Oregon’s offense
sputtered, its defense did not.
The Ducks made several key
stops down the stretch and held
the top three Pac-10 scorers,
Megan Franza and Loree Payne,
to 15 and 10 points, respectively.
“I thought we had a great defen
sive effort early in the game,”
Runge said. “Our guards did a
tremendous job of defending
Loree Payne and Megan Franza.”
Forward Lindsey Dion re
turned to the lineup after sitting
out against Stanford. The junior
provided the Ducks with several
much-needed lifts down the
■ ■
'0 -.■■sA-Mrs*- &
O U R T
R THUR
WOMEN'S BASKETBALi
Stott Barnett Emerald
Oregon unveils its Pacific-10 Conference Championship banner before the game.
schemes for much of that — the
Huskies were notably proud of
having accomplished their
pregame goal of holding Oregon to
less than 67 points.
“We didn’t give them much to
cheer about,” Williams said. “We
probably didn’t have the energy
we would have had if we would
have we’d played better. ”
Now, this gets into chickens and
eggs. What comes first? The ener
gy? Or better play? It’s a circuitous
thing, really.
Because for the most part, Ore
gon looked uninspired Thursday.
And the Ducks have to know that
it’s going to be hard to defend their
Pac-10 title in a conference this
competitive if they can’t find their
motivation. If they let the effects of
their odyssey linger much longer.
By all means, Oregon is still exe
cuting. Playing hard. Winning.
But something is missing.
At least for now.
stretch, including a 3-pointer on
her first possession late in the first
half.
Dion sat out the game against
the Cardinal with a concussion
she sustained diving for a lose
ball against California last Thurs
day. She played 17 minutes
against Washington, finishing
with eight points, five rebounds,
one assist and no turnovers.
“My mind was in the game and
I knew what was going on, it’s just
still a little foggy out there at
times,” Dion said. “Not so much
while we’re going, but when we
stop, and my body stops, my
heart rate is still going, and my
head is still going too. It’s hard for
me to get focused right away like
I’d normally be able to.”
With Dion coming into the
game late in the first half, fresh
man Alyssa Fredrick had ample
playing time for her second game
in a row. The forward finished
with five points and three re
bounds in 11 minutes.
Freshman Kourtney Shreve
came off the bench to play five
minutes at point guard, and
Courtney Moore, Ndidi Unaka
and Alissa Edwards all spent time
on the floor.
“We’re trying to get those
young kids as many minutes as
we can get them,” Runge said.
“They’re very capable of playing,
but it’s different when you’re go
ing into a game than being at prac
tice every day. They’ve got to set
tle in and get used to that, and
because we’ve been on the road
so long, we’ve had very little
chance to do that.”
Leading 57-43 with 3 minutes,
52 seconds remaining, the
Huskies cut the Ducks’ advantage
to 10 on back-to-back layups by
Payne and Franza.
But Meharry hit a jumper and
Williams and Nicole Strange
made four ftee-throws to seal the
win with 55 seconds left.