The Ducks played brilliantly all through November, running past Auburn and the rest of their nonconference slate with hustle and open-court basketball, undefeated at 10-0.
In their Big Ten Conference opener Sunday at No. 4 UCLA it became another story, a tall tale as the Bruins fed their 6-7 center Lauren Betts, who dominated inside with 14 rebounds, five blocked shots and 24 points on 10-19 shooting.
It revealed a daunting matchup challenge for the visitors as their best inside players, forwards Mia Jacobs, Sarah Rambus and Ehis Etute stand 6-2, 6-3 and 6-0, giving up size and height to the senior from Centennial, Colorado, second in the Big Ten in scoring last year at 20.2 points per game.
A tournament team in 2025, Oregon's road back starts with shooting and defense
The Bruins jumped out quickly, leading 19-8 after the first and 49-26 at the half. "We're disappointed," head coach Kelly Graves said. "We didn't play well enough in the first half. I liked our effort and execution; we were much better in the second half. You just can't dig that kind of a hole against that kind of [team]."
Ehis Etute with the moves for two 🙌 @OregonWBB
— Big Ten Women's Basketball (@B1Gwbball) December 7, 2025
📺: FS1 pic.twitter.com/q4PYBRVDhs
Point guard Katie Fiso led the charge back with 14 points and seven assists. Off the bench Etute pulled down nine rebounds to go along with her 14 points.
At 10-1 the Lady Webfoots are well on their way to a return to the NCAA tourney, and they get a chance to regroup a bit, off until Sunday when they host Montana State at Matthew Knight Arena, then host the University of Portland on Thursday December 18.
Giving away some size to the conference's bigger squads, they have to rely on shooting and defense. At 10-1, there's no reason to lose confidence.