Oregon women's basketball lets lead slip away in third straight loss to No. 16 Utah
Though it led for the entire first half and for most of the third quarter, the Oregon women’s basketball team couldn’t overcome a slew of injuries and a cold second half in a 58-48 loss to No. 16 Utah Friday night at Matthew Knight Arena.
The Ducks (11-10, 2-6 Pac-12) were without leading scorer Grace VanSlooten and freshman starter Sofia Bell went down midway through the third quarter with a leg injury that forced her to miss the rest of the game. VanSlooten sat out the game with a concussion she suffered late against Cal.
Still, for most of the game, the Ducks were in charge.
Oregon started off hot, holding the Utes off the scoreboard through the opening minutes for an 8-0 run. The Ducks stretched their lead to double digits midway through the second quarter before Utah finally hit some shots late off Oregon turnovers. The Ducks led 29-21 at the half and held Utah to 8-for-32 shooting from the field and 4-for-20 shooting from 3-point land.
“We were on point defensively,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said. “Our kids were really disciplined, we stayed at home and played through (Phillipina Kyei) on the offensive end. But I think defensively we were really good … by and large I gotta be pretty happy with the effort. This is one of leading scoring teams in the country, the best 3-point shooting team in the country and we held them to 58 points. Without Sofia and Grace, we don’t have a lot of options to score ourselves. We just didn’t score enough.”
Oregon falls apart late
In the third is when things began to fall apart for the Ducks. Utah went on a 12-0 run midway through the third, and Bell went down and never returned from the locker room with an injury. Oregon scored just seven points and Utah led 43-36 heading into the fourth.
The final frame was much of the same for the Ducks in the early going until Gray hit some shots to bring the deficit to just three with 3:38 left to play.
Unfortunately for Oregon, Utah leading scorer Alissa Pili finally got loose in the fourth, scoring 12 of her 16 points in the final frame to help the Utes pull away for the win. The Ducks did not score after Gray’s 3-pointer with 3:38 left.
Oregon coach Kelly Graves on Phillipina Kyei: 'One of the best centers in the country'
Kyei led the Ducks with 19 points and 16 rebounds. The junior was the only Duck with more than six boards. Chance Gray had 18 points, and no other Duck had more than three points.
“She is showing game in and game out now that she’s one of the best centers in the country,” Graves said. “I’m really proud of her growth on the court and off the court. We unfortunately wasted a really good effort from her.”
The win puts the Ducks just one game in front of .500 with a date against No. 3 Colorado on Sunday back at Matthew Knight Arena.
Graves said that he didn’t know if VanSlooten or Bell would be available to play Sunday against the Buffaloes, but that, “my guess is they’re both out for Sunday.”
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: Utah Utes top Oregon Ducks women's basketball: How it happened
