Oregon women's basketball falls in regular season finale to Stanford
The Oregon women’s basketball team closed its regular season with a 76-56 loss to No. 4 Stanford on Senior Day at Matthew Knight Arena Saturday afternoon, its 13th consecutive loss.
The Ducks (11-20, 2-16 Pac-12) have eclipsed a now growing program record for losses in a row and tied the program record for most conference losses in a season, finishing last in the last season of the Pac-12 Conference.
Oregon will play No. 13 Colorado – the fifth seed in the Pac-12 Tournament – at noon on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
“We’ve got nothing to lose at this point,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said. “We can go down and play free and easy and give it our best shot.”
Chance Gray leads Oregon's scoring effort in loss to Stanford
Both teams got off to a slow start Saturday, with just six combined points through the opening moments before finding a rhythm. The Cardinal got hot first, outscoring the Ducks 24-14 to take a 37-22 lead into the half. Oregon leading scorers Chance Gray and Grace VanSlooten shot a combined 4-for-22 from the field while the rest of the team shot 3-for-10 for a combined 21.9% from the floor. Stanford shot 44.4% in the first half.
The Ducks came out firing in the third, though, cutting the lead to single digits in the opening moments with an 8-2 run, and outscoring the Cardinal 21-20 in the third frame. Stanford put together its game-clinching run to start the fourth, however, scoring the first seven points of the frame to put it away late.
Oregon shot 31.6% as a team, led by Gray’s 17 points. Kennedy Basham finished with nine points and four blocks. Stanford’s Cameron Brink had 18 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Cardinal.
Will Ducks play in the WNIT tournament?
Though the Ducks had begun the paperwork process to potentially play in the WNIT, a tournament meant for teams that don’t quite make the NCAA Tournament, Graves anticipated the Ducks final game this season will be in Las Vegas.
“I’ve always been of the opinion that if someone wants you to play, play. We’ll see after whatever happens in Vegas and we’ll make that decision," Graves said. "I think we’ve done the necessary paperwork up to this point. It’s hard to justify, seeing where we are in the standings. The Oregon brand is still a brand people want to be associated with even though it’s been a tough year. We’ll see.”
The Ducks played in the strongest conference in women’s basketball this season, and despite a losing record, were ranked No. 95 in the NET rankings that measure a team’s strength heading into their matchup with Stanford. Six Pac-12 teams rank in the top-26 of the NET rankings, including three in the top-10.
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.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Pac-12 women's basketball: Stanford Cardinal dominate Oregon Ducks
