Oregon women's basketball embarrassed at home in 39-point loss to Santa Clara

EUGENE, Ore. — The Oregon Ducks were embarrassed on Saturday, losing at home to the Santa Clara Broncos by a score of 89-50, dropping their record to 3-1 on the season.

Sofia Bell cashed in a corner three on Oregon’s first possession of the game, but it was all downhill from there. Santa Clara went on an absolute heater in the first half, going 12-of-15 from behind the arc, including a string of six consecutive makes to end the half. 

“I’ve never seen a team shoot like that, certainly against us before,” said Oregon coach Kelly Graves. “They took all the made threes tonight.”

After Sarah Rambus put the Ducks up 12-11 with 4:08 left in the first quarter, Santa Clara proceeded to go on a 25-0 run over the next 4:58 to put Oregon down 36-12 before Bell finally hit a mid-range jumper to end the Bronco run with 8:40 left in the second.

From that point, Oregon began to step it up offensively, but Santa Clara’s hot shooting continued, as they outscored the Ducks 19-16 over the final nine minutes of the first half.

After Bell’s three on the first Oregon possession of the game, they wouldn’t hit another until Ula Chamberlin got one to go with 6:33 left in the half, an over 13-minute gap between made threes.

Things didn’t get much better for the Ducks in the second half, as they were outscored 34-20, despite Santa Clara cooling off from three, only shooting 4-13 from long distance.

In the game, the Broncos shot 16-28 from behind the arc compared to a measly 5-21 from the Ducks. Overall, Santa Clara shot 55 percent from the field, well beyond the 35 percent mark that Oregon put up. Turnovers plagued the Ducks throughout the second half as well. Their six turnovers in the half doubled the three that Santa Clara gave them.

Santa Clara’s three-point shooting matched up perfectly with Oregon’s size. Forward, Olivia Pollerd finished the game going 4-10 from distance. Her ability to pick and pop stretched the Oregon defense, especially center, Phillipina Kyei, out to the perimeter, opening up driving lanes for the Bronco guards.

“We knew they were gonna pick and pop all night long,” Graves said postgame. “We are who we are. So we’ve gotta make sure that we defend that. Then make our size a strength at the other end, and we didn’t, we got nothing around the rim.”

Kyei played 14 minutes in the first half, but in an effort to combat the Santa Clara shooting, Graves only allowed her to play six in the second.

Without Kyei on the floor, Santa Clara was able to get offensive rebounding opportunities that simply aren’t possible with the 6-foot-8 center out there. The Broncos pulled down seven offensive rebounds in the second half, compared to the five they managed in the first.

With the Ducks already trailing by 30 entering the fourth quarter, Graves decided to pull the star sophomore tandem of Grace VanSlooten and Chance Gray, who finished the night combing for 18 total points on 8-23 shooting from the field, and 1-7 shooting from three. After that, Oregon only managed six more points the rest of the game.

Saturday’s 39-point loss was the largest margin of defeat Oregon has seen at home since they lost by 44 points to UConn back on New Year's Eve of 2012. That UConn team featured eight future WNBA players, including two-time MVP, Breanna Stewart.

“We gotta get our minds right, first of all,” Graves said about looking forward to Tuesday’s matchup at Nevada. “You take a hit like this and it, you know… hopefully doesn’t rock us. We gotta figure it out.”

When asked what the Ducks will focus on in practice before heading to Reno, Graves simply responded, “Everything.”

Oregon is scheduled to tip off against Nevada at 6 PM on Tuesday, looking to bounce back from this embarrassing defeat at home. They will play their next home game on December 8, when the Idaho Vandals will come to Eugene.