USC takes down Oregon

The Oregon Ducks knew that they would have a difficult matchup ahead of them against the USC Trojans, and the 92-73 scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story. They played poorly in the half and were down 49-36, but they came back in the second half to take an unprecedented 60-59 lead. However, it was their only lead in the last half of play, as the Trojans went on a 21-5 scoring run in six minutes to ultimately sink the Ducks.

Liz Brenner was pegged to have a big game against the Trojans, and she came through with her breakout performance of the year. Brenner put up a team high 16 points and added five rebounds, while Jasmin Holliday had 14 points, six boards, and two blocks in a nice bounce back performance. Jordan Loera put on a show off the bench with 13 points and went 3-5 from downtown.

The story of the night, however, was Briana Gilbreath’s near triple-double. Her sister Stefanie was awful and shot 2-10 from the floor, but Briana made that poor performance a mere footnote with her 11 assists and 9 rebounds. She wasn’t much better shooting wise (5-13), but Gilbreath more than made up for it with her play in the other facets of the game. She was dominant on defense with two steals and five blocks. She had four turnovers, but nobody remembers that due to her 11 assists and 18 points on 7-8 shooting from the charity stripe. Gilbreath wasn’t perfect, but she was on the top of her game; the Ducks were helpless against her.

Not only does Christina Marinacci have an awesome last name, but she also put forth a more than adequate display against the Oregon Ducks. She had two blocks and steals apiece with a game-high ten rebounds in a solid double-double performance. Marinacci was easily the most efficient player on the team and hit 60% of her shots for 14 points in total.

Cassie Harberts added 17 points, 9 rebounds, and two steals, and the Trojans took an astounding 82 shots. Both teams were destined to play a fast-paced game, and this was the Ducks goal heading into this match-up. However, the Ducks had poor execution and were out-rebounded 51-33. The Ducks defense was exposed against a faster offense, and Oregon also shot just %37.3 from the floor. Both teams’ assisted shots’ rates were opposites, as 76% of USC’s field goals were off of assists, while the Ducks had an assist shots rate of just 25%.

As far as efficiency goes, the Ducks averaged just .82 points per play, while the Trojans averaged .97 points per play. Desiree Bradley played 18 minutes off the bench for the Trojans, but she took ten three-pointers and made just two of them during that time. Bradley was 3-12 overall, and Ashley Corral also disappointed in a 2 for 8 display. Alexyz Vaioletama was a pleasant bright spot off the bench and went 6-8 with 12 points and seven rebounds.

In a fast Pac-12 matchup, the Oregon Ducks were the worse team and lost accordingly by a total of 19 points. They made a promising comeback with 10:55 left in the game to take a one-point lead, but that lead was short-lived. The Ducks need to get back on track soon, because things are starting to get out of hand. They are missing their star player, but these kinds of losses are inexcusable. The Ducks are down to a 10-9 overall record and are 2-5 in conference play after an 8-4 non-conference record.

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