Tournament Opener Is A Grind

Friday, March 8

Las Vegas, NV

2:00 PM

University of Oregon

28-3

Arizona

18-13

Arizona

Oregon

Photo by: @EricEvansPhoto

03/08/19 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box: Oregon 77, Arizona 63

The Oregon women opened the Pac-12 Tournament with a 77-63 quarterfinal win over Arizona on Friday, and face UCLA on Saturday (6 p.m., Pac-12).

By: Rob Moseley

LAS VEGAS — When it was over, Maite Cazorla was trying to quell a coughing fit in the locker room, Satou Sabally was applying ice to her elbow and Ruthy Hebard was walking from one interview to the next on the knee she injured less than three weeks ago.

The Ducks might have been the No. 1 seed for this year's Pac-12 Tournament, but that didn't mean anything was going to come easy. Not with several UO players at less than 100 percent, and not with the quality of competition throughout the conference.

Friday's tournament quarterfinals featured a 77-63 victory for the Ducks over No. 8 seed Arizona. The UO women moved on to face No. 4 seed UCLA in the semifinals Saturday (6 p.m., Pac-12 Network), and got an early reminder of the challenge they face this week in trying to repeat as Pac-12 Tournament champs.

"I think we've set such a high bar for our program and the way we play, that it didn't feel that pretty tonight," UO coach Kelly Graves said. "It was a game that was never really in doubt — but it wasn't our typical game. But we're playing tomorrow, and that's all that matters."

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The stat sheet wasn't unkind to Oregon (28-3). The Ducks shot 60 percent in the first half, and 53.3 percent for the game. They had a 37-20 advantage on the boards, got a double-double from Hebard and saw Sabrina Ionescu come up two rebounds shy of yet another triple-double. She matched her own Pac-12 Tournament record with 13 assists.

But the Ducks also committed 13 turnovers; that's a reasonable number for most teams, but this is not most teams. And Arizona guard Aari McDonald sliced through the UO defense for 34 points, taking advantage of a physical, let-them-play tone from the officials for much of the game.

"It just didn't have that feel of a typical game — but in the end it was a convincing win," Graves said with a tone of disbelief.

This was a game Oregon never trailed, and led from the moment Erin Boley hit a three-pointer for a 5-2 lead in the opening minutes. Back-to-back jumpers by Ionescu made it a nine-point lead late in the first quarter, 19-10, and after Arizona closed within one early in the second, the UO women got consecutive three-pointers from Sabally and Cazorla to mount a 14-4 and go up 35-24.

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Sabally hit another three just before halftime to send the Ducks into the break ahead 40-28. Arizona got as close as seven on six different occasions during the second half, but Oregon fought off the comeback attempts in each instance.

If all that sounds like a commanding performance from the Ducks, it was. And yet, it wasn't.

"It might have been those first-game jitters," Ionescu offered. "We're all super nervous, and honestly excited to get out there and play. And I think that definitely played into this game. But we'll be fine. Maite will come back tomorrow better than she did today, and we'll have players step up and play Duck basketball."

Cazorla arrived in the desert on Thursday, a day later than the rest of the team, taking extra time to overcome her illness. She was subbed out less than four minutes into the game, as Graves looked to manage the workload of his lead defender against McDonald. Cazorla ended up playing 30 minutes, her fewest since the calendar flipped to 2019 but for a 23-minute performance against USC in which she had foul trouble.

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"Seeing how I hadn't practiced for like four days, and literally have been laying in bed, I think I did pretty good," said Cazorla, who had nine points on 4-of-5 shooting, plus three assists. "I'm just happy to be back with the team, and just try to help them and get back to 100 percent."

The Ducks may not have had much of an answer for McDonald, but neither were the Wildcats equipped to handle Hebard. She had 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting, and grabbed 10 rebounds — half of Arizona's total as a team.

Sabally as usual was an X factor, making 2-of-3 three-pointers on her way to 11 points, with seven rebounds. She took a hard fall in the waning moments of the game, but was in high spirits afterward. After all, Oregon had won, despite the many hurdles it faced, including Hebard at less than 100 percent.

Some of the top plays from today's 77-63 win over Arizona in the #Pac12WBB Tournament quarterfinals. #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/w7OiPmviq5
— Oregon Women's Basketball (@OregonWBB) March 9, 2019

"It's definitely a grind, but it's also like a challenge we have to face, and we're facing it right now," Sabally said. "Everybody is happy. We don't really think about, 'Oh, she's not going to be 100 percent,' because still, like 90-percent Ruthy is still better than all the other players."

Now it's on to UCLA, the team that handed the Ducks their only home loss of the season, on Feb. 22. Hebard missed that game after injuring her knee against Oregon State four days earlier. Now she's back, feeling less than perfect but ready to fight through it — just like the Ducks did Friday.

"Being not 100 percent definitely sucks," Hebard said. "But I think we did a good job of staying together and grinding it out. And I think we're going to do that for the rest of the season."