Written by: Rob Moseley, GoDucks.com
EUGENE, Ore. — As was made abundantly clear Monday night, it’s a new year for Oregon women’s basketball.The Ducks opened their season with a 93-63 win over California Baptist at Matthew Knight Arena, and did it in emphatic fashion. Four players scored in double figures, 12 scored in all and the UO women never trailed, against a team that made last year’s NCAA Tournament.Coming off a season in which Oregon is looking to flush the memories of an 11-21 record that ended with 14 straight losses, the Ducks made a loud statement.“We want to set a winning tone,” said UO coach Kelly Graves, who improved to 12-0 in season openers with the Ducks. “We’ve got a lot of hungry players, and they’ve set pretty high goals. We’ve got to get started some time, and it was good to get a win against a quality opponent.”Oregon’s roster features nine newcomers, seven of which played Monday. They didn’t stop the Ducks from executing with a high level of cohesion — their 23 assists matched the team’s season-high from 2023-24, and their five turnovers Monday matched last year’s season-low. Oregon’s 13 three-pointers Monday were three more than the Ducks made in any game a year ago.“We talked about it in the preseason, wanting to set the tone — coming out in the first game and expecting us to be here, expecting to hold ourselves to a standard,” said UO senior guard Peyton Scott, who scored a team-high 16 points in her first official action since suffering a season-ending injury in last year’s opening game. “We’re upholding that standard. We wanted to show tonight the team we can be. There’s still room for improvement, but we’re setting the standard high.”Elisa Mevius added 14 points with six rebounds off the bench, and fellow newcomer Deja Kelly had 10 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. Returner Sarah Rambus added 10 points and transfer Alexis Whitfield had nine points with a team-high eight rebounds.Of the 12 Ducks who played more than one minute, all had at least one made field goal and eight players scored at least seven points.“We don’t want to be a selfish team,” Whitfield said. “Hopefully what we showcased tonight was, that’s our standard. That’s one of our core goals as a team.”How It Happened: Junior forward Amina Muhammad scored Oregon’s first points of the season on the Ducks’ second possession, as the UO women never trailed in the game. Scott and Whitfield followed with made three-pointers, and after CBU finally got on the board, the Ducks put together a 7-0 run that included Sofia Bell’s first of three three-pointers in the opening quarter. Her third made it 25-7, and Oregon led 25-12 at the period’s end.Defense helped fuel Oregon’s hot first quarter, but the Ducks were beat in transition a couple of times early in the second as CBU kept it close. But with the lead cut to single digits at 34-25, the Ducks went on a 13-0 run that included two three-pointers from newcomer Ari Long and two more from Mevius. That helped the UO women take a 47-27 lead into halftime.Six points from Kelly coming out of halftime helped Oregon out to its biggest lead of the night at that point, 54-31. After California Baptist scored again, the Ducks went on another 7-0 run that included a three-pointer from Scott. The first official collegiate basket by freshman Katie Fiso, off a steal and assist by Mevius, got the lead to 30 for the first time, 65-35. At the end of the third period, Oregon was up 68-45.With Oregon up 81-52 in the fourth, the Lancers mounted a 9-0 run. But the Ducks responded with 12 straight points, including a three-point play from Rambus and three-pointers by Sammie Wagner and Mevius. That last three from Mevius gave the Ducks their biggest lead of the night, 93-61, before the visitors scored the final bucket of the night.Notable: Junior guard Nani Falatea scored two points in three minutes of action before being sidelined by an ankle injury in the second quarter. … Senior forward Salimatou Kourouma and freshman Ehis Etute were the only Ducks who didn’t play. Etute is away from the team this week fulfilling an obligation to her international team. … Kelly remained at Matthew Knight Arena after her game to serve as the sideline reporter for the B1G+ stream of the Oregon men’s basketball game later Monday evening.Up Next: The Ducks host Nevada on Wednesday (7 p.m., B1G+).
