California beats Oregon Ducks 83-71

Behind a 10-18, 27-point performance by Layshia Clarendon, the California Golden Bears women’s team defeated the Oregon Ducks 83-71 in Eugene, Oregon. The Ducks held a lead with 11:48 left in the game, but Cal made a put-back and never relinquished the lead from that point onward. The end result was unsurprising, but the Ducks should have kept this game a little closer at home.

Amanda Johnson was viewed as a key to victory in this game’s preview, but she had a disappointing 3-11 performance with 11 points. She missed all three of her two pointers, and her only noteworthy stat was her eight rebounds. Johnson was disappointing, and she was nowhere near Clarendon Thursday.

Both teams shot well from downtown, but the difference was that the Oregon Ducks struggled to make their two-point shots. Cal is among the most efficient teams down low, so they did not struggle in this regard. Overall, the Golden Bears averaged 1.08 points per possession, while the Ducks totaled .92 PPP and unsurprisingly lost given the disparity in efficiency. The Golden Bears made nearly every shot in site, and the fact that the Ducks were outrebounded by 15 boards also hurt.

Once again, freshman Liz Brenner came up big off the bench with 12 points on 5-8 shooting, and she also added four rebounds. Ariel Thomas is on an upward curve again, as she went 3-5 from downtown with 13 points in 30 minutes. Jasmin Holliday also had 13 points for the Ducks, but it took her 13 shots. She also had more turnovers (four) than rebounds (three), which didn’t bode well against a top rebounding team.

For the Golden Bears, Talia Caldwell and Reshanda Gray went a combined 9-15 from the floor with 22 points and 19 rebounds. Both of them are two of the best role players in the conference and proved it by grabbing 45% of the team’s 42 rebounds.

The Oregon Ducks can’t be too disappointed with this loss, but this could have been a huge home win for the Ducks and a way to bounce back. Instead, the better team took control offensively and crashed the boards. The Ducks didn’t play poorly, but they were definitely not the better team Thursday night in their own town.

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