Ducks Can Set Tone For Civil War At Home

EUGENE, Ore. — In order to focus on the 40 minutes at hand Friday night against Oregon State, the Oregon women's basketball team will try to block out the noise of a couple interesting narratives entering the Civil War matchup.

The Ducks (14-6, 4-4 Pac-12) host the 11th-ranked Beavers in Matthew Knight Arena on Friday at 8 p.m., a game to be televised by Pac-12 Oregon. The UO women are looking to end an 11-game losing streak in the series, and to keep themselves in the top half of the Pac-12 standings entering the second round of conference play, which begins Sunday morning in Corvallis with a Civil War rematch.

Prior to their last practice for Friday's game, one day earlier, UO players said they weren't focused on those storylines. Perhaps benefitting the Ducks, they're a freshman-dominated team that starts three first-year players, including Pac-12 field-goal percentage leader Ruthy Hebard and guard Sabrina Ionescu, whose third triple-double of the season came Sunday against Utah.

"I know I'm not, as much," Hebard said. "I'm just trying to go out and play each game. Even when we were ranked (for a week in December) coach would tell us, rankings don't matter."

Sunday's win over Utah was Oregon's fourth in five games, pulling the Ducks back to even in the Pac-12 standings after an 0-3 start. Picked seventh in the preseason poll, the Ducks enter Friday night in sixth place, just three games behind conference leaders Washington, Stanford and OSU.

The UO women can close the gap with the Beavers — and end the losing streak to their rivals — with an upset Friday night.

"We know it as coaches; I know our fans do," Graves said. "So we're all trying to get a win. But we don't focus on it. …

"The fact is, we need it because we're clawing our way. We're right in the middle, and we want to get up into that upper group."

The Beavers (18-2, 7-1) were expected to feel the impact of losing Jamie Weisner and 6-foot-6 Ruth Hamblin from last year's team, and instead haven't missed a beat. Guard Sydney Wiese is averaging 15.2 points per game, and Marie Gulich averages 10.8 points with 8.5 rebounds.

The Ducks have started freshmen Hebard and Mallory McGwire up front in recent weeks, while getting valuable contributions off the bench from senior Jacinta Vandenberg. They won't have to battle Hamblin this weekend, but the OSU front line still is formidable, led by the 6-5 Gulich and 6-foot-3 Breanna Brown.

"They're still big and strong and experienced inside," Graves said. "They may not be 6-6, but they're still very strong."

For the first time in Graves' tenure, the Civil War doubleheader begins in Eugene rather than Corvallis. Instead of having to rebound from a defeat to the Beavers at home, the Ducks will have a chance to start off the two-game rivalry series with a statement Friday night, before what's expected to be a raucous crowd.

"It's going to be crazy," Hebard said. "There's going to be a lot of people here, so I'm really excited to be a part of it."