No. 21 Oregon Hosts Huskies Friday

EUGENE, Ore. — No. 21 Oregon returns to Matthew Knight Arena for a weekend series with the Washington schools, as the Huskies visit Friday night at 7 p.m. PT on Pac-12 Oregon.

The Ducks look to rebound from a 79-71 loss at No. 15 Arizona Sunday. The Wildcats handed UO its fourth loss of the season, all coming to teams ranked in the nation's top 15. UO split two games on its road trip to the Grand Canyon State after starting the weekend with an 82-62 trouncing of Arizona State.

Oregon owns a 54-51 series lead against Washington and seeks its 10^th straight win against the Huskies. UO claimed the only meeting a season ago, 68-61, in Seattle, while the Ducks are 7-2 against UW at Matthew Knight Arena.

GAME #17
No. 21 Oregon (12-4, 3-2) vs. Washington (9-5, 1-3)
Friday, Jan. 13 | 7 p.m. PT | Matthew Knight Arena (Eugene, Ore.)
TV: Pac-12 Oregon
Play-by-play: Ann Schatz | Analyst: Anthony Levrets
Radio: Oregon Sports Network (KUGN 98.1 FM/590 AM)
Play-by-play: Terry Jonz | Analyst: Bev Smith
Listen Online | Live Stats

AT A GLANCE
Oregon returns home after splitting two games in its first Pac-12 road trip to the desert, as the Ducks defeated Arizona State, 82-72, Friday before falling at No. 15 Arizona, 79-71, on Sunday. The Ducks sit at 3-2 through five conference games and alone in sixth place in the standings.

All four of UO's losses have come to the teams ranked in the nation's top 15, with three of those losses decided by eight points or less. Against ranked teams, freshman Grace VanSlooten leads Oregon with 21.4 points per game while shooting 56.8 percent from the field while Te-Hina Paopao is next at 16.2 points game. Phillipina Kyei is hauling in 11.0 rebounds a game and Endyia Rogers averages a team-best 4.6 assists per game.

Friday, Oregon seeks its 10th straight win against Washington and looks for its ninth straight win against Washington State on Sunday.

LAST TIME OUT
In the weekend series finale Sunday at Arizona, Oregon held a 35-34 lead at halftime and trailed the Wildcats by two with 29 second to play. UA connected on all six of its free throws to clinch a 79-71 victory.

VanSlooten led all players with 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting while Paopao and Rogers each added 17 points. Kyei grabbed 10 rebounds for her eighth straight game with double-digit boards.

The Ducks shot 52.7 percent from the field - their highest shooting percentage in a loss this season - but committed a season-high-tying 20 turnovers. Arizona turned those 20 turnovers into 16 points while Oregon turned nine Wildcat turnovers into eight points. UA also held a 26-3 edge in bench points, marking the Ducks' lowest bench scoring effort of the season.

SCOUTING WASHINGTON
Washington began the season 8-1, but has dropped four of its last five games after a 66-52 loss at rival Washington State on Sunday. The loss extended the Huskies' losing skid to three games, including home losses to Colorado and Utah.

Dalayah Daniels is the only player averaging double digits in scoring at 11.6 points per game. Daniels also leads her team with 6.6 rebounds a game. Haley Van Dyke is second in scoring at 8.8 points a game and Lauren Schwartz is third at 8.0 points. As a team, UW averages a Pac-12-low 64.1 points per game while shooting 40.8 percent from the field, with a league-low 22.6 3-point percentage.

Washington averages 42.0 rebounds a game while opponents are grabbing just 31.1 boards an outing, good for the second-best rebounding margin in the conference at 10.9 (ninth in the country. UW's 15.6 offensive rebounds per game rank second in the Pac-12 and 16th nationally.

Defensively, UW allows 57.6 points per contest, which ranks fourth in the conference. Opponents are shooting 34.4 percent from 3-point range against the Huskies, which ranks 12th in the league, while Oregon ranks first in 3-point shooting at 38.0 percent.

INSIDE THE SERIES
Meeting 105 times in the series' history, Oregon owns a 54-51 lead against Washington dating back to 1974. The Ducks have won nine straight meetings against the Huskies going back to the 2016-17 season, their third-longest winning streak in the series. At home, UO is 32-17 with a 7-2 record at Matthew Knight Arena. Head coach Kelly Graves is 10-3 against UW in his Oregon career. Including Friday's game, the Ducks have been ranked in the top 25 in eight of the last nine matchups.

THE "O" STANDS FOR OFFENSE
Oregon's 113.3 offensive efficiency rating (points per 100 possessions) is the fourth-highest mark in the country and third-best in the Pac-12 behind only Utah (115.0) and Stanford (116.6). The Ducks' 81.6 points per game rank as the 12th-best mark in the country and third-highest in the conference.

UO has scored at least 75 points in 11 of 16 outings while reaching the 90-point mark four times. Under ninth-year head coach Kelly Graves, the Ducks are 52-0 when scoring at least 90 points. This season, Oregon is 4-0 when reaching the 90-point plateau, surpassing the total number of 90-point efforts during the 2021-22 and 2020-21 seasons (three times each). At Matthew Knight Arena this season, the Ducks are averaging 83.7 points per game while shooting 46.4 percent from the field and 41.4 percent from behind the arc.

In 16 games, five different players have led the Ducks in scoring this season, including Ahlise Hurst twice off the bench. Grace VanSlooten has finished as the team's leading scorer (or tied) a team-best six times with Endyia Rogers doing so five times and Te-Hina Paopao three times.

PROTECTING HOME COURT
Matthew Knight Arena has proved to be one of the top home-court advantages in the country, as the Ducks won the first seven home games this season until their loss to No. 10 UCLA on Dec. 30. Additionally, Oregon has won 55 of its last 56 home games against non-league opponents. UO owned a 44-game home non-conference winning streak that began Dec. 29, 2014, a streak that was snapped with a 64-57 setback to UC Davis on Dec. 1, 2021. In that same span, the Ducks have won nine times against non-conference Power 5 teams and four times in the NCAA Tournament.

» Oregon is 60-3 at home in non-conference play under head coach Kelly Graves, with two of the three losses coming in his first year at the helm of the program in 2014-15.
» The Ducks have lost just 11 times against non-Pac-12 teams at MKA, owning an 82-11 record all-time.
» Since the start of last season, Oregon is 20-4 at Matthew Knight Arena with an 8-1 record this season.
» Under Graves, the Ducks average 80.1 points per game at Matthew Knight Arena while averaging 18.7 assists a game with 29.8 made field goals.
» Since the 2017-18 season, Oregon is 37-9 at home during Pac-12 play.
» MKA averages 6,113 fans a game this season - the 10th-highest number in the country and second in the Pac-12.

ROGER THAT
Through the first five games of the conference slate, senior guard Endyia Rogers is pacing the Pac-12 at 21.4 points per game in league action, scoring at least 17 points in each conference games. Against Oregon State in UO's Pac-12 opener on Dec. 11, Rogers poured in a career-best 34 points in a 75-67 win on her way to claiming Pac-12 Player of the Week honors. It marked Rogers' first 30-point performance as a Duck after scoring 30 twice while at USC. Rogers went 10-for-18 from the field and connected on a career-high six 3-pointers, going 6-for-10 from beyond the arc.

» Ranks fourth in the Pac-12 in 3-point shooting at 47.0 percent.
» Ranks fifth in the conference with a 2.45 assist-to-turnover ratio.
» One of four players nationally, and only player in the Pac-12 to average more than 15.0 points and 4.0 assists a game while shooting 45.0 or better from 3-point range.
» Made at least one 3-pointer in nine straight games from Nov. 24 to Dec. 3 (career-long streak).

PHILLI SPECIAL
Oregon sophomore center Phillipina Kyei, the tallest player in program history at 6-foot-8, has been a force in the frontcourt this season for the Ducks. She is the Pac-12 leader and ranks fifth nationally at 12.1 rebounds a game, hauling in double-digit rebounds in 11 of her last 12 games, including each of the last eight games. Kyei is responsible for five of Oregon's eight double-doubles this season, with three coming in a four-game span from Nov. 27 to Dec. 15.

» Pac-12 leader and No. 5 in the nation at 12.1 rebounds per game.
» Just the fifth Duck all time to have four games in a single season with 15 or more rebounds (most since Ruthy Hebard had four in the 2019-20 season).
» Only five times in program history has a player finished with 12.0 or more rebounds a game (last done by Jillian Alleyne with 13.5 RPG in 2015-16).

TAKING CARE OF THE ROCK
As a team, Oregon has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.49 - good for tops in the Pac-12 and fourth in the country. A high assist-to-turnover ratio is a theme under head coach Kelly Graves, as the Ducks rank lead the category since the 2017-18 season at 1.54. Oregon led the country in assist-to-turnover ratio in back-to-back seasons (2018-19, 2019-20) and finished fourth in 2017-18.

The Ducks lead the Pac-12 and rank 13th in the country in fewest turnovers per game at 12.5. Conversely, UO is forcing opponents into 14.0 a game for a plus-1.5 turnover margin. Additionally, the Ducks have an assisted shot rate of 61.6 percent and a net rating of 27.5 (margin of victory per 100 possessions).

NUGGETS AND TRENDS
This season, Oregon averages just 10.6 turnovers per game in victories while turning the ball over 18.3 times per game over four losses. When the Ducks have 15 or more turnovers, they are 1-4 while all four of UO's losses have come to teams ranked in the top 15.

In its 12 victories, Oregon is shooting 41.1 percent from 3-point range in victories while averaging 9.2 3-point field goals. Defensively, the Ducks are holding teams to 27.5 percent and 5.8 made 3-pointers. In defeats, the Ducks are shooting just 28.1 percent from behind the arc and their average made 3-pointers drops to 6.3 while opponents are making 9.5 3-pointers a game at a 44.7 percent clip. Through 10 games, UO's perimeter defense suppressed opponents to just 24.0 percent from 3-point range (4.8 made 3-pointers per game). Over the last six games, teams have a combined 43.4 3-point percent while averaging 9.8 made 3-pointers.