WNIT Super 16 on Deck for Ducks

EUGENE, Ore. — Rolling through the first two rounds of the 2023 WNIT, the Oregon women's basketball team takes on San Diego in the Super 16 round of the postseason tournament Thursday at Matthew Knight Arena at 6 p.m. PT.

The Ducks outscored Rice 44-22 in the second half on Monday, as UO finished a 78-53 win over the Owls to earn a spot in the third round. Endyia Rogers registered a game-high 19 points while Te-Hina Paopao and Grace VanSlooten each added 17. Phillipina Kyei tallied a career-high eight blocks in the game, the most by a Duck since 1999, in addition to grabbing 15 rebounds.

Oregon and San Diego have met once previously, with the Ducks earning a 74-67 win in San Diego on Dec. 28, 1993. The winner of Thursday's game will advance to the Great 8 round and take on the winner of K-State and Washington.

GAME #34 – WNIT Super 16
Oregon (19-14) vs. San Diego (19-13)
Thursday, March 23 | 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 San Diego in the Super 16 round of the 2023 WNIT Thursday night after a convincing 78-53 win over Rice on Monday. USD defeated Long Beach State in the opening round, 75-57, before a 58-48 win over UC Irvine in the second round.

With a win, Oregon will reach the 20-win plateau for the seventh straight season, not counting the pandemic-abbreviated 2020-21 season. Thursday's game will mark the second all-time meeting between UO and USD and first since 1993.

UO, in its eighth all-time WNIT, now boasts a 20-5 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
Leading by just three at halftime on Monday, the Ducks outscored Rice 44-22 in the second half to cruise to a 78-53 second-round victory.

Endyia Rogers logged a game-high 19 points while Te-Hina Paopao and Grace VanSlooten each added 17. Phillipina Kyei flirted with a triple-double, grabbing 15 rebounds to go with nine points and a career-high eight blocks. Her eight blocks were tied for 10th-most in a game in program history and most since Jenny Mowe's eight in 1999.

SCOUTING SAN DIEGO
San Diego (19-13, 11-7 WCC) finished the regular season in third place in the West Coast Conference standings, but fell to Pacific in the quarterfinals of the WCC tournament, 75-57. The Toreros defeated Long Beach State in the first round of the WNIT before taking down UC Irvine Monday, 58-48. San Diego has won nine of its last 12 games and is 7-7 in games away from home (6-5 in true road games).

Against the Anteaters, USD put together a 54-34 rebounding advantage, led by 17 from Kasey Neubert. Neubert produced an 18-point, 19-rebound double-double against LBSU in the opening round, helping her team to a 50-22 edge in total rebounds.

Ayanna Khalfani was tabbed the WCC's co-defensive player of the year and was joined on the All-WCC second team by Kiera Oakry. Veronica Sheffey earned a spot on the conference's all-freshman team.

Oakry is the only Torero to average double-digit points on the season at 10.8, followed by Myah Pace at 9.6 and Khalfani at 9.1. Neubert is averaging a team-best 8.1 rebounds per game.

INSIDE THE SERIES
Thursday's matchup between Oregon and San Diego will be just the second-ever meeting between the teams, and the first since the Ducks defeated the Toreros 74-67 back on Dec. 28, 1993 in San Diego. This will be the first game between the sides in Eugene. UO played one other squad from the West Coast Conference this season, a 90-51 win over Portland, who went on the win the WCC Tournament title.

DUCKS IN THE WNIT
Oregon, who had qualified for five straight NCAA Tournament berths, makes its eighth all-time appearance in the WNIT/NWIT and first since 2016. Last Friday, UO bounced North Dakota State from the tournament with a 96-57 win in the first round before a 78-53 win against Rice in the second round on Monday.

The Ducks' 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. Through two games, Te-Hina Paopao leads UO with 20.5 points a game while both Endyia Rogers and Grace VanSlooten are averaging 14.5. Paopao is 10-for-16 from behind the 3-point line, while the Ducks are shooting 44.9 percent from 3 as a team.

In their last WNIT appearance, the Ducks reached the semifinal round before falling at South Dakota, 88-54. Following Monday's win, UO is now 20-5 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 6-1 in the WNIT during his Oregon tenure. The Ducks own a 13-2 record at home in the WNIT/NWIT while Graves is 5-0.

VETERAN BACKCOURT
Guards Te-Hina Paopao and Endyia Rogers have been the catalyst in helping the Ducks win five of its last six games, rebounding from a seven-game losing streak from Jan. 29 to Feb. 19. The duo has accounted for 233 of UO's 441 points over the last six games (53 percent), averaging a combined 38.8 points per game in that span.

The all-Pac-12 backcourt have connected on 39 of Oregon's 55 3-point field goals over the last half a dozen games, good for 71 percent. Paopao has a team-best 32 3-pointers in that stretch and has at least three made 3s in six straight outings.

Over the season's first 27 games, Paopao and Rogers had both scored at least 15 points in the same game just three times. Over the last six, the pair has done so four times, going 3-1 in those games.