Women's Hoops Opens Season Sunday

Sunday, November 13

Eugene, OR

2:00 PM

University of Oregon

Lamar

11/10/16 | Women's Basketball

Lamar Game Notes 16-17

Head coach Kelly Graves and the Ducks open the 2016-17 season on Sunday against Lamar.

By: Joe Waltasti

EUGENE, Ore. - The Oregon women's basketball team, in its third season under head coach Kelly Graves, opens up the 2016-17 campaign on Sunday at 2 PM against the Lamar Cardinals.

There will be a free live stream available at GoDucks.com/live plus links to a radio stream and live stats can be found on the women's basketball schedule page.

OREGON BREAKDOWN (2015-16 stats shown)
PPG: 72.7 | FG%: 46.6 | 3FG%: 42.1 | FT%: 70.2
Notable: In its third campaign under Kelly Graves, Oregon is coming off a 24-win season, just one victory shy of matching the school record set in in 1980-81 and again in 1998-99. The Ducks lost six seniors off last season's roster - including All-American Jillian Alleyne - but welcome the nation's No. 3 ranked recruiting class to town. The Ducks led the NCAA last year, shooting 42.1 percent from three. Lexi Bando was sixth in the NCAA at 45.3 percent.

LAMAR CARDINALS (2015-16 stats shown)
PPG: 69.5 | FG%: 37.2 | 3FG%: 30.8 | FT%: 70.8
Lamar Series Record: First meeting
Notable: Last year Lamar went 12-19 overall and 7-11 in the Southland Conference. This year, the Cardinals were picked to finish fourth in the preseason league poll. Sophmore guard Chastadie Barrs was named second team preseason all-Southland after the DeSoto, Texas, native averaged 10.3 points last year as a freshman and ranked second in the NCAA in steals at 5.9 per game.

EXHIBITION WIN
The Ducks dominated across the board last Saturday night in their first game of the season to rout Northwest Christian 89-36. Every player suited up earned playing time and put points on the board. All 13 players scored on the night. The freshmen shined in this game; Morgan Yaeger led in scoring with 15 points and Mallory McGwire grabbed seven rebounds. Lexi Bando hit a game-high four three-pointers. "I have a big old smile on my face, " head coach Kelly Graves said. " Because I think we have a really nice basketball team this year."

EUROPEAN TOUR RECAP
The Ducks had the opportunity to play five games this summer while touring Amsterdam, Barcelona and Madrid. In the opening game of the tour, a 66-64 win over Dutch league team Bremmel, Oregon rallied back from a six-point deficit to win, capped by Lexi Bando's free throw line jumper with 15 seconds left. Mar'Shay Moore made two critical steals late in the game to spur the comeback. Oregon rolled in three games in Barcelona, winning 70-36, 87-39 and 89-27. In their final game of the tour in Madrid, the Ducks faced Spanish first division team CF Cref and won 75-68. In a back-and-forth game, the Ducks took the lead with 1:46 left. Freshman Sabrina Ionescu tallied back-to-back three-point plays to put the game away. Overall on the trip, Moore and freshman Morgan Yaeger tallied a team-high 41 total points. Yaeger went 15-of-37 from the floor while Moore shot 16-of-25. In the post, freshman Mallory McGwire had 38 points and 35 rebounds in five games. Freshman Ruthy Hebard posted a double-double in the third game of the tour with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Ionescu posted 30 points, 30 rebounds and 18 assists on the trip.

NCAA'S NO. 1 THREE-POINT SHOOTING TEAM
The Ducks shot a blistering 42.1 percent from three last season, the best in the NCAA. That percentage was the second-best in UO history and was just the second time a UO team has shot better than 40 percent from three in a season.

THE NEW TALL FIRS?
With six players standing 6-foot-3 or taller, the Ducks are tied with Kansas State and Texas for the tallest roster in Div. I women's basketball this season. Oregon's tallest player is 6-foot-6 freshman forward Lydia Giomi from West Seattle, Wash. She is the tallest player on the Oregon roster in 10 years (Jessie Shetters, 6-foot-6, 2003-07).

THREE STARTERS RETURN FOR 2016-17
The Ducks return three starters off last year's team which advanced to the final four of the WNIT. Junior guard Lexi Bando is back for her third year as a starter, sophomore point guard Maite Cazorla also returns as does senior forward Jacinta Vandenberg.

BANDO FROM DEEP
Returning guard Lexi Bando shot 45.3 percent from three-point range last season, which ranked second in the Pac-12, behind Stanford's Karlie Samuelson, and sixth in the NCAA. Bando led the league as a freshman, shooting 44.0 percent, just ahead of Bonnie Samuelson.

POISE BEYOND HER YEARS
Despite being a freshman last season, point guard Maite Cazorla led the Pac-12 in assist-to-turnover ratio, total assists and assists per game. Her 206 total assists ranked 12th overall in the NCAA and was the second most in single-season Oregon history.

JUST SHY OF PROGRAM WINS RECORD
With 24 victories last year, Oregon finished just one win away from matching the program record for wins in a season. The record for wins for the Ducks is 25, set in 1980-81 under head coach Elwin Heiny and again in 1998-99 under Jody Runge.

WNIT RUN
Despite the loss of Jillian Alleyne to an ACL injury in the final week of the regular season, head coach Kelly Graves and the Ducks rallied to win four games in the WNIT. Without Alleyne, the Ducks suffered losses at Cal and Stanford to close out the regular season and lost to Arizona in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament, keeping the Ducks out of the NCAA Tournament. Instead of folding, Graves and the Ducks responded with wins over Long Beach State, Fresno State, Utah and UTEP in the WNIT. The run came to an end in the final four of the WNIT with a loss at South Dakota, which went 15-of-21 from three-point range in the game.

THE QUEST FOR 20 WINS
Oregon, at 24-11, reached the 20-win mark last season for the first time since going 21-10 with a 12-6 league mark in 2004-05.

GRAVES' 20 WIN SEASONS
With a 24-11 record last year, head coach Kelly Graves has 13 20-win seasons in 19 years coaching at the Div. I level. Graves has won 20+ in nine of the last 10 years.

NATION'S NO. 3 RECRUITING CLASS
Head coach Kelly Graves and his staff signed the nation's No. 3 ranked recruiting class, according to ESPN. The Ducks signed three five star players and five players ranked in the ESPN 100. The No. 1 class in the nation was Maryland while the No. 2 class was Baylor. The next highest in the Pac-12 was Stanford at No. 9.

PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
Oregon's roster features four players of the year from the high school ranks. Sabrina Ionescu was the USA Today national player of the year as a senior while Justine Hall (Colorado), Mallory McGwire (Nevada) and Ruthy Hebard (Alaska) all claimed Gatorade state player of the year honors during their prep careers.

BREAKING DOWN THE RECRUITING CLASS
- Making her debut for the Ducks this season is the nation's No. 4 overall recruit, guard Sabrina Ionescu (Miramonte HS/Walnut Creek, Calif.). The highest-ranked recruit in UO history was the McDonald's All-American game MVP and the USA Today National Player of the Year.
- Joining Ionescu is the nation's No. 14 ranked recruit, forward Sierra Campisano. At 6-foot-3, the San Diego, Calif., native averaged a whopping 30 points per game as a senior to go with 15.9 rebounds, 5.7 blocks, 2.7 steals and 2.3 assists.
- The Ducks also brought in the No. 40 ranked recruit, forward Ruthy Hebard. Standing 6-foot-4, Hebard was a three-time Gatorade Player of the Year in Alaska.
- Australian guard Morgan Yaeger was ranked at No. 92 in the ESPN 100. Yaeger played in the WNBL league as one of the youngest players on the Adelaide Lightning and competed extensively for the Australian youth national teams.
- Also ranked in the ESPN 100 was forward Mallory McGwire at No. 98. The daughter of former NFL quarterback Dan McGwire and neice of former MLB slugger Mark McGwire, the 6-foot-5 post from Reno was a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in Nevada. She was named Northern Region co-Player of the Year as a senior after posting 15.4 points, 10.9 rebounds and 3.9 blocks per game.
- Arguably the most intriguing player in the recruiting class is 6-foot-6 forward Lydia Giomi. The lanky post runs the floor like a guard and was named 3A first team all-state in Washington after averaging 14.4 points, 10.6 rebounds and two blocks per game as a senior at West Seattle HS.
- Oregon's first signee for the 2016 recruiting class was guard Jayde Woods. The 6-foot-1 guard played at Windward HS in Los Angeles where she averaged 12.3 points, six rebounds and six assists per game as a senior. She was a first team all-CIF open division selection and a second team all-state choice by MaxPreps.

2015-16 PAC-12 HONORS
- Jillian Alleyne was named Pac-12 co-player of the year a season ago by the media, splitting the vote with OSU's Jamie Weisner. Weisner won the coaches vote.
- Alleyne was also named all-Pac-12 by both the coaches and media. Lexi Petersen and Maite Cazorla were honorable mention all-Pac-12 choices.
- Cazorla was a unanimous selection to the Pac-12 all-freshman team by both the coaches and media.
- Alleyne was a unanimous all-defense choice.

JILLIAN ALLEYNE
The biggest hole on the roster will come at the power forward position with the loss of All-American Jillian Alleyne. Alleyne finished her remarkable career with 92 double-doubles, the second most in NCAA women's basketball history. She also grabbed 1,712 career rebounds, the third most in NCAA history. Alleyne finished her remarkable career as the Pac-12's single-game, single-season and career leader in rebounds plus the league's leader in rebounds per game.