University of Oregon
California
Oregon?s Season Ends With 82-57 Loss to Cal in Pac-10 Tourney
03/05/04 | Women's Basketball
SAN JOSE, Calif. ? The University of Oregon women's basketball ran into a hot-shooting California team Friday in the opening round of the Pac-10 Tournament, losing 82-57 to the Bears at HP Pavilion.
Oregon, the No. 8 seed in the 10-team tournament, ends its season with a 14-15 record. California, which lost to the Ducks last Saturday at Eugene, improved to 12-16 on the year and will play No. 1-seed Stanford on Saturday at 5 p.m.
Eleanor Haring was Oregon's lone double-digit scorer with 18, which tied a career-high set in last Thursday's win over Stanford. She hit 6-of-11 from the field, grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and set a career-best with four assists.
“It is pretty disappointing," said Haring, a member of the conference's All-Freshman Team. "We wanted to come out hard tonight, but they just got the early lead and we had to play catch-up the whole game."
Renee Wright came off the bench to lead five Bears in double-figure scoring with 16. Kiki Williams scored 12 of her 15 points in the first half, hitting 4-of-4 from long range before halftime. She ended the game making all five of her attempts as Cal hit on a season-high 11-of-19 from 3-point territory.
“Hats off to Cal. I thought they played a very good game," Oregon coach Bev Smith said. "They came out shooting the ball really well, they attacked the zone, and they got the lead to set the tone. We weren't able to recover and we played catch up all night. We came within 10 in the second half looking like we had an opportunity, but they stayed very aggressive and they hit some big scores and got some important rebounds at crucial times."
Nihan Anaz had 14 points and a game-high 10 assists for California after scoring just four points in the teams' last meeting.
Oregon junior center Andrea Bills had four points and one rebound in 15 minutes as she played on a severely sprained right ankle. Against Cal last Saturday, she had a career-high 22 points to go with 10 rebounds.
“It is very disappointing because my teammates are looking for me to be there," Bills said. "I tried to go out and play as hard as I could, and I felt like I should have been able to do more, but I just didn't have it tonight."
It marked Oregon's second-worst loss to California in school history, with its biggest defeat a 94-67 setback Jan. 3, 1991. The battered and bruised Ducks never led in the game.
Oregon sophomore guard Chelsea Wagner made 2-of-3 from 3-point range, as she finished 10th all-time on the school's single-season list with 39.
The Ducks lose just one player from this year's squad, senior guard Kayla Steen. Oregon is expected to return All-America candidate Cathrine Kraayeveld, who is rehabilitating from an anterior cruciate ligament tear suffered in December.
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