Oregon
‘A really young team’: Takeaways from Oregon women’s basketball’s three-win weekend
The Oregon women’s basketball team won its third straight game in a four-day span Monday, defeating Southern, 67-37 at Matthew Knight Arena.
The Ducks (7-3) got off to a hot start, led by three early long balls from Chance Gray, and held the Jaguars (1-7) to 26.2% shooting from the field in the win.
Phillipina Kyei scored a game-high 16 points to go along with a career-high 21 rebounds, and Grace VanSlooten and Gray each scored 15 points to lead the way for the Ducks. Ula Chamberlin scored seven off the bench, and Oregon won the rebound battle 49-38.
Here are takeaways from Oregon’s 59-51 win over Idaho Friday, its 65-54 win over Portland State Saturday, and its latest 67-37 win over Southern Monday.
Lineup could change game-by-game
Still looking for some stability after lead guard Peyton Scott went down with a season-ending injury in the opening moments of the Ducks’ season, Oregon head coach Kelly Graves made a starting lineup change this weekend.
Graves elected to move transfer guard Kennedi Williams back to the bench and start a much-larger lineup, slotting 6-foot-7 forward Kennedy Basham next to Kyei, VanSlooten, Gray and Sofia Bell.
That was Oregon’s starting lineup in each of its wins this weekend.
“We just hadn’t had great starts the last few games,” Graves said after the Idaho win. “Nobody has clearly won the position, so we thought why not, might as well try something different.”
The Ducks struggled to rebound in their zone defense in their first two matchups with a larger and slower frontcourt, and quickly went to subs Sarah Rambus and Williams to stabilize slow starts. But in each game, Williams looked much more comfortable off the bench than in a starting role.
“When you’re coming off the bench you get to see what the game needs,” she said. “I think that’s important to watch and go in and bring energy if they need energy, or ball movement if we need ball movement and set the right people up if they need it.”
Graves said the Ducks would continue to bring Williams off the bench in the short term, but determining a starting lineup could be a “game-to-game” decision.
“I don’t think anything is etched in stone,” Graves said. “I don’t think anybody has earned that automatic, this is how it’s going to go. It’s worked pretty well, we’ve gotten off to good starts in all three of these games.”
As shooting woes continue, Ducks shift focus to Phillipina Kyei and interior
The Ducks got three wins this weekend but continue to have a 3-point shooting problem 10 games into their season.
Gray, who has been Oregon’s only consistently willing shooter, picked up steam in the fourth quarter of its second game and at the start of Monday’s win against Southern, but outside the sophomore it’s been tough sledding.
Gray shot 9-for-24 from 3-point land over the weekend, while the rest of the team shot 3-for-26.
“We’d shoot 25 or 30 if we could make more than 1-for-11,” Graves said after the Idaho win. “The analytics would say we shouldn’t be shooting them, we aren’t making them … we’ve got to do a better job of that moving on.”
In lieu of consistent shooting, the Ducks force-fed Kyei inside almost all weekend. The junior had a pair of career performances against Idaho and Portland State before Oregon finally hit some shots elsewhere on Monday.
“(Kyei) can be a dominant player,” Graves said after the Idaho win. “She’s a willing passer and we have to do a better job when we do throw it in there and she gets double and sometimes triple teamed, we have to do a better job of getting people into open positions to take advantage of some inside-out play.”
Kyei created some open looks in the Ducks’ latest win against Southern in the first half, leading to some open shots early, and then took matters into her own hands in the second half.
The junior logged 97 minutes over the four-day span and had career outings in each of the three games the Ducks played.
“I’m so proud of her,” Graves said. “She’s now starting to figure out that she can be a dominant force. She’s obviously got a great nose for the ball. She’s selfish with those rebounds and that’s a great way to be selfish. That’s when you want to be. Setting good screens and getting rebounds. I’m proud of her development.”
Kyei averaged 17.3 points and 18.6 rebounds over the three games, including a career-high 21 rebounds against Southern, and a career-high in shot attempts (14), makes (9), and points (20) against Portland State.
The Ducks will need her to continue her tear as conference play approaches.
Defense settles in at home
After allowing too many offensive rebounds, second chance points, and points off turnovers against Baylor and Portland State last week, the Ducks settled down and held three solid offensive squads to subpar shooting nights.
Against Portland State on Saturday the Oregon defense was fierce. The Ducks held Vikings’ leading scorer Esmeralda Morales to 10 points on 3-for-15 shooting. Morales was averaging over 21 points per game to that point in the season.
Against Southern, the Ducks held the Jaguars to just 26.2% shooting from the field, and the Jags were just 1-for-15 from 3.
“The defense has looked good,” Graves said. “We’re playing a whole lot more man than we anticipated. We’re trying to get better in our zone. We’ve been able to go to both. Especially in our man we’ve been on point.”
Throwing a bunch of different defensive looks over the weekend on short prep between games, Graves was impressed with his team’s quick turnaround between contests.
“We have a really young team,” he said. “You look out on that court and a lot of the kids getting meaningful time are young and they were able to make adjustments just watching some film and with a shootaround. That’s a good sign for later on.”
While most of the team is going through a shooting slump from outside, and the offense hasn’t always been there, consistent defense will keep the Ducks in games moving forward as the regular season ramps up.
Next up for Oregon women’s basketball
After a torrid last 10 days, with finals and three games in four days, the Ducks finally have a chance to slow down. Oregon gets a little under a week off before it returns to action against UTSA on Sunday at Matthew Knight Arena.
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on Twitter @AlecDietz.
Three Oregon lawmakers say they plan to introduce a bill that would bar utilities from raising rates if they have unresolved wildfire lawsuits for three or more years, describing it as an effort to hold PacifiCorp accountable as the utility faces a series of lawsuits stemming from the deadly 2020 wildfires that ravaged the state.
Republican state Reps. Jami Cate, Virgle Osborne and Ed Diehl announced their proposal in a statement Monday, on the heels of an approved rate increase for PacifiCorp customers and a federal lawsuit against the electric power company.
The federal government sued PacifiCorp last week over the Archie Creek Fire, which ignited in Oregon’s Douglas County in September 2020 and burned more than 200 square miles, about half of which was federal land. The complaint accuses the company of negligence for failing to maintain its power lines to prevent wildfires. In its filing, the government says it brought the suit to recover “substantial costs and damages.”
A PacifiCorp spokesperson said in an emailed statement Monday that the company was working with the U.S. government to resolve the claims.
“It is unfortunate the U.S. government decided to file a lawsuit in federal district court, however PacifiCorp will continue to work with the U.S. government to find reasonable resolution of this matter,” the statement said.
The federal lawsuit was filed on the same day the Oregon Public Utility Commission approved a 9.8% rate increase for PacifiCorp’s residential customers next year. In its rate case filings, the company said its request to increase rates was partly due to higher costs stemming from wildfire risk and activity.
When the new rate takes effect in January, PacifiCorp rates will have increased nearly 50% since 2021, according to the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board, which advocates on behalf of utility customers.
The three lawmakers said they will introduce their bill in the upcoming legislative session, which starts in January.
“The federal government is doing the right thing by filing this lawsuit, and we stand firmly behind it,” Osborne, who is set to be the future bill’s co-chief sponsor, said in a statement. “PacifiCorp needs to pay up and take responsibility for the destruction they’ve caused, and putting a stop to rate hikes is the best way to achieve it.”
PacifiCorp is poised to be on the hook for billions in damages in the series of lawsuits over Oregon’s 2020 fires.
The company has already reached two settlement agreements over the Archie Creek Fire, including one for $299 million with 463 plaintiffs impacted by the blaze and another for $250 million with 10 companies with commercial timber interests, according to its website.
In other litigation, an Oregon jury in June 2023 found it liable for negligently failing to cut power to its 600,000 customers despite warnings from top fire officials and determined it should have to pay punitive and other damages — a decision that applied to a class including the owners of up to 2,500 properties. Since then, other Oregon juries have ordered the company to pay tens of millions to other wildfire victims.
The wildfires that erupted across Oregon over Labor Day weekend in 2020 were among the worst natural disasters in state history, killing nine people and destroying thousands of homes.
— The Associated Press
On Wednesday at 2:18 a.m. the National Weather Service issued a wind advisory valid from 10 p.m. until Thursday 10 a.m. for North Central Oregon and Central Oregon.
The weather service states, “South winds 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to 45 mph expected.”
“Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result,” adds the weather service. “Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. Use extra caution.”
Advance Local Weather Alerts is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to compile the latest data from the National Weather Service.
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