PORTLAND — A big third quarter provided some cushion for the Oregon women's basketball team as the No. 10 Ducks won their second nonconference game, 85-52 over Portland at the Chiles Center on Monday.

The UO women (2-0) got off to a halting start due in part to effective defensive pressure from the Pilots (1-1). Oregon led comfortably at halftime, 34-22, but then blew the game open by outscoring Portland 29-11 in the third quarter, fueled by a trio of three-pointers from Taylor Mikesell.

Oregon recorded its 21st straight victory, going back to last season, tying the program record. Erin Boley led the way with 25 points and nine rebounds for the Ducks, who open Pac-12 play on Friday at home against Colorado.

"The first half we looked really out of sync," UO coach Kelly Graves said. "We were just playing faster than we should; give them credit, they put a lot of pressure on us, and we just kind of panicked a little bit. …

"But at the same time, give our own team credit, because I thought we adjusted. At halftime we took a deep breath and took it to 'em."

How It Happened: The Ducks got off to a hot start that belied the unsteady play for the rest of the half. Boley had seven points in the first four possessions, and a short jumper by Sedona Prince made it 9-2 moments into the game. But after Taylor Chavez scored to put Oregon up 11-7, the Ducks went the next 5:07 without a field goal. Portland was held scoreless the final 4:42 of the quarter, however, and Sydney Parrish ended Oregon's dry spell in the last minute of the period to give the Ducks an 18-9 lead.

Portland's defensive pressure continued to give Oregon trouble into the second quarter; the Ducks had four turnovers in each of the first two quarters, one more than the three they had in Saturday's entire game. A three-pointer by Chavez and two buckets by Prince provided a 27-14 cushion midway through the period, and the Ducks later put together a 7-0 run with a three-pointer by Te-Hina Paopao, a pull-up jumper in transition by Chavez and a putback by Boley — one of five offense rebounds by Boley in the game. A flurry of late turnovers kept the Ducks from extending the lead, but they took a 34-22 edge into halftime.

"(Boley) got five offensive rebounds tonight — that's doing work," Graves said. "I'm really proud of her. She's been our best player, and it showed tonight."

Boley led the way to open the second half as well, scoring to spark an 8-0 run out of the break that included a three-point play by Prince and Mikesell's first basket of the night, a three-pointer. The Ducks scored another eight in a row to go up 52-27, on three-pointers by Boley and Mikesell sandwiched around a Prince basket. A third three-pointer by Mikesell was followed by a bucket for Nyara Sabally to make the lead 30, and Oregon took a 63-33 advantage into the fourth.

Sabally had two more baskets early in the fourth quarter as the Ducks maintained their advantage. Boley got the lead to 33 for the first time with a three-point play for a 78-45 lead, and she scored again on the next possession after a steal and assist by freshman Maddie Scherr. Yet another Boley bucket gave Oregon its biggest lead of the night at 82-45 with 2:09 to play.

Who Stood Out: Boley was 11-of-17 shooting, including 2-of-3 from three-point range. Prince added 13 points and seven rebounds, and Mikesell's trio of three-pointers helped her finish with 11 points. Sabally contributed eight points with seven rebounds.

What It Means: Oregon's turnover total spiked from three to 15, but an average of nine through two games is something the Ducks will gladly live with. And Graves was much more impressed with Oregon's defense against Portland than he was against Seattle in the opener — the Ducks forced 22 turnovers and blocked four shots.

All of that has the UO women feeling positive about the groundwork they laid prior to Pac-12 play.

"I think we're ready," Boley said. "We're excited for it. We improved from last game, and we'll improve from this game we played today. It's going to be a challenge, but we're ready for it."

Notable: Graves made an adjustment to his starting lineup, opening with Chavez along with Prince, Boley, Mikesell and Paopao. Chavez made 3-of-4 shots and finished with seven points. … All 13 players on the roster appeared in the game, for the second game in a row. … Sophomore Jaz Shelley scored her first points of the season with two free throws in the final minute.

Up Next: The Ducks open Pac-12 play against Colorado in Matthew Knight Arena on Friday.

Oregon women’s basketball conference opener against Colorado, which tips off at 2:06 PM PT in Matthew Knight Arena.

TV

Pac-12 Network

PxP: Ann Schatz | Analyst: Elise Woodward

RADIO

Oregon Sports Network

Eugene: KUGN 590 AM | Portland: KDZR 1640 AM

PxP: Terry Jonz | Analyst: Bev Smith

From our buddy Warren at ODFN.

Nothing fires up a team than an unexpected loss, especially if it’s your in-state rival.

And while we’re not able to actually watch practice or visit the locker room during this current pandemic, we’ve heard nothing but fire and brimstone coming from both of those locations as the Ducks prepare to hit the road against Cal on Saturday.

“We all talked as a group,” said Oregon QB Tyler Shough when asked about his teams mood this week.

“We got all of our leaders together and talked to the team about what this week means to us and how we want to move forward. Everyone’s kind of jelling together. We’re pissed off in a way we know we should have done better last week, but we’re just going to use this momentum and really just take this week of practice seriously and then take it onto the field on Saturday.” When the Ducks needed their offense most last week against the Beavers, in order to seal the game in the waning moments, they simply couldn’t execute which allowed the ball to go back to OSU.

It was certainly a turning point in that game, however Oregon offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead believes his unit is still playing good football.

“I think we’re playing above-average right now,” explained offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead.

“I think we have a lot more in the tank. I think we need to continue creating explosive plays which have been our goal for all the games. We have to eliminate the turnovers, and I don’t know if that means zero every game but certainly, minimize them. I think that’s the biggest thing right now to take the next step and continue to do well on third down and score touchdowns in the red zone.”

The Oregon offense still remains first in the Pac-12 in these offensive categories – scoring offense, total offense, yards per play, third-down conversions (53%), first downs per game (24.8), and passing efficiency.

The Ducks offense is expected to get a key part of their offense back Saturday versus Cal. After making just one catch this season, (Stanford) Pittman is expected to return to the lineup in Berkeley.

“Mycah is back,” said Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal this week.

“We got him back late Friday. So that’s why he wasn’t part of the game. He is good to go. Again, it was nothing he ever did wrong, it was just part of not being available.”

Although transfer receiver Devon Williams has filled in nicely during Pittman’s absence, Pittman is extremely explosive in the slot and outside and has shown to make big plays downfield, something the Ducks can use in Moorheads scheme.

“He’s an awesome competitor,” said Cristobal. “He stayed in great shape. He certainly did everything humanly possible to be physically prepared.”

This is a veteran group we were counting on in a big way defensively. Very little pass rush and it was pretty darn good last year. Very few tackles for loss and I think we were very high nationally in that stat last year. Not occupying blockers and causing holes to be closed for clean up by others. This really has me baffled....KT....one sack, hardly notice Funa at all and our big fellers are no where near where they were last year.....throw in no heat seeking missles like Dye, Holland and Breeze and ugh!!!
Oh and why I’m on a roll....please get rid of that soft zone coverage. I could complete most of those passes. Just don’t hit me.....lol.
Any opinions on why this is happening with especially the DL??

So...do the 49ers and Cal not play in the same county? Onviously not, since our game is still on. Anyone from that area want to give me a crash course geography lesson on where each team team plays its home games in the bay area?

Dale and Scott take a look at the Cal game and what the Ducks need to do to win it.

RIP

Don’t jump to conclusions, Ashton would have also been hard to rate. Giana Bullock from Tennessee has just committed to Oregon. She is a multis athlete (heptathlon and pentathlon) Gianna is a friend of Oregon freshman multi athlete, Jett Kinder. Jett was a 5 star recruit out of Tennessee. Due to the pandemic, Gina doesn’t have any outdoor marks from her junior season. She had the 10th fastest high school girl’s 300m hurdle time in Tennessee as just a sophomore. . She is currently competing indoors and doing well in the 60m hurdles. long jump and high jump. Multis athletes can be difficult to predict, but I have a good feeling about this one. It is fair to say that she appears to have a hurdles, and jumps orientation. Congratulations Gianna. Welcome to Track Town!

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Watching the Ducks since the 1960's, I have seen a lot of bad defensive teams. When coaches for the Ducks or any other team talk about "poor tackling", you need to take a little deeper dive to explain it. Poor tackling is more often about the Jimmy and Joes, than any technique problem. Th biggest problem with missed tackles is that the player is not in position to make the tackle for the following reasons

1) He is not fast or quick enough to get in tackling position

2) He is not strong or athletic enough to get off blocks

3) He does not have the instincts to read plays fast enough

So watching the Duck/Beaver tape a little closer , I see guys not getting off blocks and only getting an arm on the runner. I see linebackers and DB's not reacting fast enough. I see Defensive lineman not getting penetration. Just getting stood up. and running backs flying by them. Watch Slade-Mautuia not reacting when filling a hole. On Jeffersons first big run , watch Nick Picket standing next to the runner but not reacting fast enough. He looks like he doesn't want any part of making the tackle. On many runs outside the tackles, there just aren't enough defensive bodies there. Lineman getting blocked and DB's and linebackers slow to react.

I keep hearing they are young. Thats only true on the back end. The entire 2 deep of D lineman are back. I keep hearing they miss Troy Dye. Hey , they miss Dan Fouts and Bobby Moore as well. Guys graduate. They have to be replaced. The best linebacker is a true freshman. The best D lineman is a true sophmore. The safetys are vets who aren't very good. Biggest problem I see is a lack of talent and a lack of improvement by the vets. I'm still high on the future as they are bringing in top talent at most positions. The exception is the defensive line. They have neither the players in school or players recruited who are NFL types except Kavon. I think they are getting good players in the defenisive line, but if they want to play with th Alabama's, the entire front 7 needs to be much better;. They got some big time linebackers in last years class and need to get the 4/5 star lineman whch is of course the hardest position to recruit because there just aren't a lot of great ones out there.

Bottom line is I felt that if the problem was something other than talent, the OSU game would be the game they would turn it up a notch. UCLA gashed them , so if it were a problem with emotion or effort, they would have beaten OSU. Instead, the OSU offense blew them off the ball. Now, I'm not giving up on them getting better, but I would not hold my breath that much will change in the next 3 weeks. They can still win becasue no one in this league is very scary, but my guess is they will not win out

Coach Moorhead talks about taking the offense to the next level.

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This is Auburn HS vs. Thompson-Alabaster in the 7A final on Wed night.

Here is what happens:

-Down 28-19 Thompson turns it over on downs inside the AHS 20 with 1:14 left in the game.
-AHS kneels it-out of shotgun-resulting in a 4th and 30. They choose to PUNT with under 30 seconds left. Thompson blocks the punt and houses it! 28-26.
-Recovers ensuing on side kick
-2 straight PIs result in 35 yard FG with zeros on the clock.
-Thompson hits it to win 29-28.
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EUGENE, Ore. – Junior Will Richardson underwent successful surgery Wednesday to repair an injury to his left thumb sustained earlier this week in practice.

Richardson, who was named to the preseason all-Pac-12 first team after averaging 11.0 points per game as a sophomore, will be out at least six weeks. The Hinesville, Ga., native led the Pac-12 in three-point field goal percentage last year at 46.9 percent.

No. 21 Oregon opens the 2020-21 season Wednesday at 6 p.m. Pacific against Missouri in Omaha, Neb. (FS1).

Just wow!

Troy Franklin #28 Down 2
Thornton #56 Down 1
Keith Brown #81 Down 31
Matavao #95 Down 7
Davies #104 Down 30
Walden #109 Down 6
Ferguson #116 Down 8
Seven McGee #159 Down 15
Brevard #205 Down 71

For your reading (lack of?) pleasure, today's War Room talks briefly about an unanswered question from earlier this week - the supposed schematic advantage of lining up a yard off the ball.

Latest from the senior DE from today.

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Caught up with the future Duck QB this morning. Enjoy!