The Oregon Ducks showed their road warrior mentality with wins against USC and UCLA.
Both games saw Oregon wins and it was by an impressive margin by a combined 40 points. Satou Sabally showed she can be a dominant force and has started out Pac-12 play with some of the best basketball of her career averaging better than 20 points per game. She had a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds vs the Bruins.
Ruthy Hebard has helped with her inside presence. She had 19 points and an eye-popping 18 rebounds vs UCLA on Sunday. The team mentality of Oregon is becoming more clear as the season continues. Sabrina Ionescu is the clear leader of this team, but the Ducks have role players at every position. The bench is led by Taylor Chavez, who was equally impressive vs USC.
More from Autzen Zoo
- Oregon football: Ducks and Coach Prime playing it cordial leading up to Saturday
- Oregon Basketball: Non-conference slate features Michigan coming to Eugene
- Oregon football: Ducks find complete game effort in win vs Hawaii
- Oregon Ducks must get run game going against Hawaii
- 8 Pac-12 teams represented in Associated Press Top 25 after Week 2
Chavez finished with 14 points in 26 minutes. She posted two assists and a season-high six steals off the bench for the Oregon Ducks. With those kind of numbers, she could be in a position to start with other programs but is able to show her ability coming off the bench giving every play 100 percent.
Against USC, Sabrina Ionecu put her name at the top of the list for assists in Oregon Women’s Basketball history. Of the six active members on the career assists list, the Oregon Ducks have two of them. Oregon remains ranked 5th in the AP Poll this week, but with wins in back to back seasons over USC and UCLA, could be in the position to move up in the coming weeks.
The Oregon Ducks return home to Matthew Knight Arena this week with an eight-game winning streak and an undefeated home record to face the Arizona schools. 19th ranked Arizona State is up first on Friday(6 pm Pacific Time, Pac-12 Networks) followed by Arizona on Sunday (Noon, Pac-12 Networks.).