Nichole Barker | Photographef
Athletic trainer Tom
Embree and Kedzie
Gunderson assist
Oregon shooting
guard Chelsea
Wagner off the floor
after she sustained a
knee injury in the
second half.
Oregon women
prevail through
ailments, injury
BY STEPHEN MILLER
SPORTS REPORTER
There was something in the air
Thursday night, and it wasn’t just the
competitiveness that ferments in
McArthur Court for every Oregon
Washington rivalry game.
Shooting guard Chelsea Wagner
drained a career-high six three-point
ers for Oregon. However, an injury to
her left knee in the second half
filled the Ducks’ night with
bittersweet emotions.
Twelve minutes into the second
half, Wagner jammed her knee on de
fense and the primary spark of Ore
gon’s outside game had to be helped
off the court. The Ducks were unaf
fected and carried out an 86-77 win
over the Huskies.
“I think our team handled it very
well,” Smith said. “We’d been through
it before and we decided to get after it
and go forward.”
Wagner’s mid-game departure was
n’t the first symptom of adversity for
Oregon. Corrie Mizusawa — who
leads the Pacific-10 Conference in as
sists — was sidelined with a fever af
ter starting 43 consecutive games. The
Ducks were forced to tap into their
bench for the second straight game.
“Corrie is a very important person
for us,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith
said. “She has been a reason why we
have been so deep, with her play and
her leadership.”
Redshirt freshman Kaela Chapde
laine filled in at the point for a career
high 35 minutes and a game-best five
assists. The only negative statistic in
her first career start were her five
turnovers, four of which she
committed in the first half.
“Kaela has played at the point, so I
think she felt good with the minutes
r
she had,” Smith said. “I think it speaks
of our depth and our grit. ”
That grit showed when Oregon
went througu ^ lowest moment of the
season. Wagner’s injury brought back
memories of Cathrine Kraayeveld’s
season-ending injury last year.
Wagner, a junior, went downstairs
and then immediately returned to the
bench to root for her teammates.
“That’s all I really wanted to do,”
Wagner said. “Everyone supports me
so I wanted to be up there to
support them.
“As soon as I went down, they re
grouped and pulled it together and
finished off the game. ”
Smith believes that Wagner’s en
couragement from the sideline kept
the team from falling apart.
“She came back and gave us a big
lift by just being on the bench with
us,” Smith said. “It was a moment that
really helped our team pull together.”
Without Mizusawa and her ability
to find open players in the paint, the
Ducks seemed to emphasize the
perimeter game more.
Earlier in the contest, Wagner was
carrying the team from behind the arc.
She scored 20 points in 21 minutes on
6 of 8 shooting with all of her shots
coming from three-point range.
Smith gave Wagner “a lot of credit
for being in the right place and being
able to drill those (three-pointers),” de
spite Wagner’s modesty about her
shooting abilities.
At the same time, Wagner said she
will try not to fret about the severity
of her injury.
“It’s something that I’m going to
have to deal with.”
stephenmiller@ dailyemerald. com
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