The Oregon Ducks (22-4,11-2), or should I say Ruthy Hebard, capped off a perfect HIHwW by blowing out the Washington Huskies (7-17, 1-12), 76-63.
Full disclosure: this sports "journalist" had too much fun at the game to actually give any in-depth analysis, but I can give you the overall feel of the game. And the overall feel was that Ruthy Hebard is very, very good. The Sophomore scored 30 points and had 14 rebounds. On a night where Sabrina Ionescu performed well below her capabilities (10 Pts, 5 Reb, 4 Ast.) Hebard was by far the most impressive player on the court, though Amber Melgoza of the Huskies also had a notable performance with 21 points.
The Ducks outscored the Huskies in each quarter, but were only up by 6 at the half. However, after a dominant third quarter in which the Ducks outscored the home team 27-15, the Huskies failed to spark a meaningful run.
Although the Ducks have reached unprecedented levels of success this season, they still find themselves chasing after the Stanford Cardinal. As of right now, Stanford (17-8, 11-2) is tied with Oregon in PAC-12 play and last week's win against the Ducks would be the tie-breaker if both teams were to win the remainder of their games.
What's worse is that Stanford has an easier road ahead of them to the top seed in the PAC-12 tournament. The Cardinal will face Colorado (12-12, 3-10), a home-and-home competition against Cal (16-8, 7-6), and then wrap up their season against the Huskies and Wazzu (10-15, 3-10). None of their remaining opponents are ranked.
Oregon on the other hand will need a Stanford loss and a win over Wazzu, USC (16-8, 6-7), No. 8 UCLA (20-4, 11-2), No. 25 ASU (17-8, 8-5), and then Arizona (6-18, 2-11). The Monday game against UCLA could decide the fate of the PAC-12 as the Bruins are also tied with Stanford and Oregon.
The Ducks play Washington State this Sunday at 1pm on the dreaded PAC-12 Network.
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