University of Oregon
Idaho State
Ducks' Big Second Half Ices Idaho State, 79-56
12/09/04 | Women's Basketball
EUGENE, Ore. ? An eight-point halftime deficit proved enough to get the University of Oregon women's basketball team ready for the second half, as the Ducks trounced Idaho State 79-56 before 3,272 McArthur Court fans Thursday.
With a 6-0 record, Oregon is off to its best start since the 1999-00 season.
It didn't look promising in the first half, however, as Idaho State (3-5) held a slim margin most of the way and capped off the first half with a 3-pointer by Camile Michaelson to take its largest lead of the game, 31-23, entering the locker room. The Bengals held the Ducks to 24 percent shooting in the half.
The second half was a different story, as the Ducks outscored the Bengals 56-25, sparked by 14 second-half points by senior Brandi Davis in just nine minutes. Davis entered the game midway through the second half, and managed to score 10 points ? including back-to-back 3-pointers ? in a two-and-a-half minute stretch that fueled Oregon's 14-0 run to give them a 58-39 lead at the 6:33 mark. The Ducks shot 61 percent in the second half while the Bengals managed just 27 perecent.
"Brandi did a great job," Oregon coach Bev Smith said. "We've been working all week on finding her tempo. I thought she did some things in terms of creating things for others too. She really has her nose to the grindstone."
It was a season-high in points for Davis, who hit 5-of-9 from the floor and had a season-best six rebounds.
"All that I did tonight is because of the team," said Davis, who made 3-of-5 from 3-point territory. "They found me when I was open, or when I was on the 3-point line. It felt good to play a game a like that. I've been waiting for it. Everyone has been waiting for it."
Senior forward Cathrine Kraayeveld, who struggled from the field early on, also picked it up in the second half and finished with her first double-double this year ? 19 points, 12 rebounds to go along with five assists and four blocks. All four of her blocked shots occurred early in the second half.
"(We) were two completely different teams," said Kraayeveld, who shot 6-of-16 from the floor. "In the first half we were sloppy. We missed open lay-ups. We know how good of a team we can be and in the second half we proved that."
Eleanor Haring was Oregon's other double-figure scorer with 13 on 6-of-10 shooting. Natalie Doma led Idaho State with 19 points, hitting 9-of-18 from the floor, and grabbed 11 rebounds while Andrea Sivakova added 11 off the bench.
Oregon next travels to Fort Collins, Colo., to take on Colorado State (5-2) on Sunday at 5 p.m. PST. The game will be televised live on the Oregon Sports Network (Comcast 9 in Eugene; Comcast 14 in Portland).
"CSU is going to be a better team," Kraayeveld said. "We can't afford to play the first two or three minutes like we did in the first half (tonight). We can't do that on the road. (Those first few minutes) are very important in determining what the rest of the game is going to be like."
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