‘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.