Ducks Dominate WSU In Pullman
PULLMAN, Wash. – Oregon bounced back from its two losses in the desert over the weekend with a dominant effort in an 83-30 win at Washington State on Wednesday.
The No. 24 Ducks (15-7, 8-3 Pac-12) set a program record for opponent field goal percentage, allowing the Cougars (14-8, 6-5 Pac-12) to shoot just 17.5 percent while the 30 points allowed are the second-fewest given up in a game in school history. UO also shot 51 percent from the floor highlighted by three players in double figures, led by Endyia Rogers with 17 points.
"Really pleased with the effort," said Graves. "I thought we were on point from the beginning defensively and offensively. Some of the things we didn't do so well last weekend we did today."
"We talked about getting up when you fall – that's one of the first things you learn as a human being, and we did. So I'm proud of the group and we have a much better taste in our mouths than last weekend."
How it Happened: The Ducks came out firing on all cylinders on both ends of the floor, jumping out to a 21-2 lead eight minutes in. Oregon hit nine of its first 12 shots from the field while holding WSU without a field goal until the 2:11 mark of the first as the Cougars missed their first 13 shots from the field. Rogers paced the Ducks in the opening quarter, scoring 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting to help UO to a 23-6 lead after one.
Oregon continued to build its lead in the second, as a Maddie Scherr jumper with 2:15 until halftime gave the Ducks their largest lead of the half at 38-13. After a couple of WSU layups, Shannon Dufficy connected on a jumper with 24 seconds left to give UO a 40-17 halftime lead.
The Ducks took away any hope of a WSU comeback right out of the gates in the second half, going on a 15-2 run to jump out to a 55-19 lead with 4:32 left in the third. UO then closed the quarter on an 11-0 run highlighted by six points from Kylee Watson to make it 66-22 heading to the fourth.
Oregon continued to keep the clamps down defensively in the fourth as the Ducks held WSU to 14.3 percent shooting in the fourth and 13.3 percent in the second half to stretch the lead out even further to finish.
Who Stood Out: Rogers led the team in scoring for the third straight game with her 17 points – 12 of which came in the first half – while shooting 3-of-4 from outside and grabbing six rebounds. Sedona Prince added 12 points and eight rebounds on 5-of-6 shooting while Te-Hina Paopao poured in 14 points while grabbing six rebounds and dishing out four assists.
Scherr turned in another strong all-around game, scoring six points while recording eight assists and grabbing a career-high eight rebounds – four of which came on the offensive end. Sydney Parrish finished with nine points on 4-of-8 shooting while Ahlise Hurst and Kylee Watson had strong games off the bench, with Hurst scoring nine points and Watson adding six to go with seven rebounds and three steals.
Up Next: The Ducks open rivalry weekend against Oregon State on Friday in Corvallis (8 p.m., Pac-12 Network) before hosting the Beavers on Sunday in Matthew Knight Arena (1 p.m., Pac-12 Network).