Oregon women’s basketball rode a big second quarter surge and held on to defeat the Purdue Boilermaker in West Lafayette, 71-65.
The sides traded runs in the first quarter, with Oregon’s 9-0 being followed by Purdue’s 7-0 run.
The Ducks broke the game open in the second quarter. Six Oregon players scored in the 2nd, led by Sofia Bell. Bell had been cold in her previous
three games, but found the long ball in the first half.
Oregon went into the half up by 11, having thrown the Boilermakers off their game.
“Sofia carried us in the first half with the three ball, and it really set up the inside game,” head coach Kelly Graves said after the game.
Purdue outscored Oregon in the second half, but in spite of shots not falling for the Ducks, their defense kept the Boilermakers at bay. Bell may not have scored points in the second half, but she and Ari Long were quite disruptive on defense.
Oregon had a sizable lead in the fourth quarter, but Purdue came charging back in the last three minutes of the game. The Ducks defended well enough and made enough shots at the very end to come away with the win.
“Where we won the game tonight was with our defense,” said Graves. “Sometimes we get a little conservative, tonight we just decided right from the get-go we were going to get back into our signature three-quarter court 1-2-2 (zone). And it slowed them down, got them out of their rhythm and created some steals out of it, and easy baskets at the other end.”
Purdue and Oregon shot evenly this game. The Boilermakers were led by Nya Smith with 20 points.
Oregon was led by Katie Fiso with 19 points, and Ehis Etute with 17 points.
Ultimately, the Ducks took it to Purdue on the defensive side. Purdue turned the ball over 21 times to 11 for Oregon. The Ducks scored 31 points off those turnovers, to eight for the Boilermakers.
Oregon finished with 16 steals, their most in a Big-10 game this season, including a career-high five from Sofia Bell and a season-high-tying four from Ari Long.
“I thought Ari Long, defensively, was outstanding in that first half,” Graves said. “We had 27 disruptions in the first half, and I think she had a dozen by herself. Defensively, she’s relentless and we needed it tonight.”
Oregon (20-10, 8-9 Big-10) picks up at least 20 wins for the second season in a row, and have one more game to try and pick up the eight seed in the Big Ten tournament. The importance of the 8-seed is that it comes with a first-round bye.
To that end, the Ducks have one more game in the regular season, and that is a home match on Sunday against Washington. Tipoff is at 2:00 pm PT.
