UO, Rice Set to Battle in WNIT Second Round

EUGENE, Ore. — The Oregon women's basketball team returns to Matthew Knight Arena Monday to host Rice in the second round of the 2023 Postseason WNIT, with tipoff scheduled for 6 p.m. PT.

The Ducks cruised to a 96-57 win in the opening round of the tournament against North Dakota State on Friday, getting a game-high 24 points from Te-Hina Paopao and a triple-double from Endyia Rogers.

Monday's matchup will be the first between Oregon and Rice. The winner of Monday's game will advance to the Super 16 Round and take on the winner of San Diego and UC Irvine.

GAME #33 – WNIT Second Round
Oregon (18-14) vs. Rice (23-8)
Monday, March 20 | 6 p.m. PT | Matthew Knight Arena (Eugene, Ore.)
TV: Oregon Live Stream
Radio: Oregon Sports Network (KUJZ 95.3 FM)
Play-by-play: Terry Jonz | Analyst: Bev Smith
Listen Online | Live Stats | Tickets

AT A GLANCE
Oregon will host Rice in the second round of the 2023 WNIT Monday night after a convincing 96-57 win over North Dakota State Friday. Rice ousted BYU in Provo Friday, 7-67, to advance to take on the Ducks. The Ducks' 96 points and 39-point margin of victory marked program highs in the WNIT.

Monday's matchup with the Owls will be the first-ever meeting between the teams. Rice went 23-8 during the regular season and earned a third-place finish in the Conference-USA standings at 13-7.

UO made its eighth all-time appearance in the WNIT, as the Ducks now boast a 19-5 record in the postseason tournament. Oregon claimed the 2002 WNIT title in addition to winning the 1989 NWIT championship. In its last trip to the WNIT in 2016, Oregon reached the semifinals.

LAST TIME OUT
Behind a game-high 24 points from Te-Hina Paopao and a triple-double from Endyia Rogers, Oregon cruised to a 96-57 win over North Dakota State in the first round of the WNIT.

Paopao notched her fifth 20-point outing in her last six games, as she is averaging 21.8 points a game while shooting 66.7 percent from 3-point range in that stretch (34-for-51). Rogers' 10-point, 11-rebounds, 11-assist triple-double was the first of her career and first by a Duck since Sabrina Ionescu in 2020.

SCOUTING RICE
Rice (23-8, 13-7 C-USA) finished the regular season in third place in the Conference-USA standings, but fell to UTSA in the quarterfinals of the league tournament, 62-54. The Owls took down BYU in Provo, 71-67, in the opening round of the WNIT last Friday.

Rice placed a pair of players on the All-C-USA Second Team in Ashlee Austin and Malia Fisher. Austin led the Owls at 12.3 points per game while Fisher was second at 12.0 a contest while also hauling in a team-best 6.4 rebounds a game. Katelyn Crosthwait paced the conference in 3-point shooting at 38.0 percent.

The Owls have won six of their last seven games, with four of those being away from home. Rice boasted a 13-2 home record.

As a team, Rice led Conference-USA in field goal shooting at 44.3 percent while allowing a league-low 28.3 percent from 3-point range.

INSIDE THE SERIES
Monday's meeting between Oregon and Rice will mark the first-ever meeting between the teams. UO's last trip to the WNIT in 2016 featured a matchup against fellow C-USA member UTEP, where the Ducks defeated the Miners in the quarterfinal round in El Paso, Texas, 71-67.

DUCKS IN THE WNIT
Oregon, who had qualified for five straight NCAA Tournament berths, made its eighth all-time appearance in the WNIT/NWIT and first since 2016 on Friday, In their last WNIT appearance, the Ducks reached the semifinal round before falling at South Dakota, 88-54. Following Friday's win, UO is now 19-5 all-time in the WNIT/NWIT and claimed the 2002 WNIT title in addition to the 1989 NWIT championship.

This year's bid marks the second WNIT appearance under ninth-year head coach Kelly Graves (2016), who is 5-1 in the WNIT during his Oregon tenure. The Ducks own an 12-2 record at home in the WNIT/NWIT while Graves is 4-0.

The Ducks' 96-57 win over North Dakota State in the opening round marked UO's highest point total in a WNIT or NWIT game, while the 39-point margin of victory was also a program high.

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 56 of its last 57 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 61-3 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 83-11 record all-time.
» Since the start of last season, Oregon is 24-7 at Matthew Knight Arena with a 12-4 record this season.
» Under Graves, the Ducks average 79.9 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 40-12 at home during Pac-12 play.
» MKA averages 6,237 fans a game this season - the 11th-highest number in the country and second in the Pac-12.

PAOPAO BREAKOUT
Oregon junior Te-Hina Paopao was tabbed Pac-12 Player of the Week for the first time in her career on Feb. 28, as she put together three consecutive 20-point games. Paopao first dropped a game-high 22 at Washington on Feb. 19 before scoring 21 points to help the Ducks upset No. 14 Arizona at home on Feb. 23. In the regular-season finale against Arizona State, Paopao drained a career-best seven 3-pointers on her way to a then-season-high 23 points. Against Stanford in the second round of the Pac-12 Tournament, Paopao dropped a career-high 28 points while setting a UO single-game tournament record with seven 3-pointers (7-for-10).

Friday against NDSU, she led all scorers with 24 points behind 6-of-7 shooting from behind the arc and 9-of-11 field goals overall. Paopao has scored 20 or more points in five of her last six games, going 34-for-51 from 3-point range in that span (66.7 percent) while averaging 21.8 points a game.

Her torrid stretch came on the heels of six straight games in which she did not crack double figures, as the 22-point game at UW snapped that streak, including a scoreless contest on Feb. 17 at Washington State. It was her first outing this season without getting into the scoring column. In her previous six games prior to the Washington game, Paopao averaged just 4.3 points while shooting 9-for-55 from the field (16.4 percent) and 2-for-19 from three (10.5 percent).