Preview: Oregon Women's Basketball vs. California

The Ducks will look to get their first conference win of the season against the Golden Bears on Sunday.

Author:
Graham Metzker
Publish date:
Jan 9, 2022 2:40 PM EST

The Oregon Ducks will finish up their Bay Area business trip with a game against the California Golden Bears in Berkeley on Sunday afternoon. It will be the second Pac-12 game for Coach Kelly Graves and the Ducks, coming two days after a tough 80-68 loss at No. 2 Stanford.

Despite losing by double digits, Oregon showed some real fight late in the game. The Ducks outscored the Cardinal 18-14 in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a deficit that grew as large as 18 points at one point in the game. Strong finishes have been a common trend for the Ducks this year — the team has outscored opponents in the fourth quarter in eight of their 12 games.

It’s hard to be upset after the loss to the reigning champs and the mediocre 7-5 start to the season. Things are definitely looking up for the Ducks. Forward Nyara Sabally and guards Endyia Rogers and Te-Hina Paopao have been re-installed into the starting five in time for conference play. Once forward Sedona Prince clears Oregon’s COVID-19 protocols, Graves will have all of his key pieces available for the conference play long-haul ahead of him. But the Ducks have gotten used to life shorthanded, and it will take time for the team to readjust.

The best example of this is seen in the backcourt. Guard Maddie Scherr was the main ball handler for Oregon with Rogers and Paopao sidelined. During this time, Scherr did an excellent job spreading the court, owning the second-best assist average in the Pac-12 with 4.8 assists per game. Having Rogers and Paopao back adds more scoring options from the backcourt for the Ducks, but it also means more shots are designated for the guards. This new style of play did not treat the Ducks well against Stanford. Rogers and Paopao shot half of the Ducks' field goal attempts in the game, and the duo shot an unsightly 36% from the field. Although Scherr connected on a clutch three-pointer in the fourth to cut Stanford’s lead to eight, she too struggled from less time on the ball and finished with just six points. Oregon lacked the offensive creativity to get good shots against the defensive beast that is the Stanford Cardinal. And because of this, Oregon’s field goal percentage was an ugly 36.4%. It will take some time, but this Oregon team has the pieces to be competitive come March.

While Oregon has underperformed compared to its constantly-high season expectations, California has exceeded expectations in its early season matchups. The Golden Bears were selected to finish dead last place in the Pac-12 in preseason media predictions and had no members on the preseason All-Pac-12 team. Yet Charmin Smith's team enters Sunday’s game with a 9-3 record and a 7-1 record at home. It’s hard to blame the media, as Cal finished last year’s COVID-shortened season with just one win out of its seventeen games. One of those losses included a 100-41 thrashing by the then No. 11-ranked Oregon Ducks.

Lots has changed for Cal over the offseason, but the biggest difference has been involving the younger players on the team. Dalayah Daniels turned heads as a freshman, starting in all seventeen games last season and earning an honorable mention on the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team. Now, she leads the team in scoring, averaging 11.9 points. The Bears are no laughing matter anymore, and Oregon will get a good test in Berkeley on Sunday.

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