Oregon Ducks Women’s Basketball Loses To Undefeated UCLA, 62-52

Oregon women’s basketball fell at home yesterday to the #1 UCLA Bruins, 62-52.

Oregon’s defense was back on point as they held the Bruins thus far to their lowest score of the season. Defense was not the problem here; the problem was offense.

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For the past three weeks, Oregon has struggled offensively, and that has translated into losses. The Ducks struggled even with a pair of wins – victories over Iowa (50-49) and Indiana (54-47) only happened because of great defense and the inability of the other team to shoot well. That wasn’t going to get a victory over the likes of an undefeated UCLA team, and that’s what we saw play out.

Although Oregon scored the first bucket, they again started the game cold, only scoring seven points in the first period. They held UCLA to 12 points, so they weren’t out of it yet.

In the second quarter, the Bruins pulled out to a 10-point lead midway in the second, but the Ducks were able to close the gap somewhat and were only down six at the half, 25-19. Still manageable.

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Oregon pulled to within two early in the 3rd, 25-23, but their offense sputtered after that. When the Ducks went into the fourth quarter down 10, you got the feeling that any opportunity had been squandered and that 10 points down against this UCLA team might as well be 30 – it was still going to be a loss.

The Ducks got no traction in the fourth quarter, bringing us to our 62-52 final.

UCLA shot 41% on the day, including 7-17 from beyond the arc. They edged the Ducks in most categories, although the performance gap wasn’t huge.

Oregon did an admirable job of keeping a lid on UCLA’s Lauren Betts, keeping her out of double-double territory. Phillipina Kyei defended as well as one can against one of the best players in the nation. With 21 points, Londynn Jones was the only Bruin in double digits.

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The Ducks shot 27% and went 2-17 on the long ball, and that was pretty much the game right there. Nani Falatea led Oregon with 19 points, and Deja Kelly added another 14 points.

Head coach Kelly Graves had this to say after the game:

Our two high scorers added these comments:

The Ducks have a chance to get on the right track before they head out to the Midwest on a two-game road trip, as they host the Washington Huskies on Wednesday at MKA, and try to put the brakes on their three-game skid.