The No. 10 Oregon Women’s Basketball team (4-0) defeated the Utah Utes (0-1) by a score of 85 to 43 at Matthew Knight Arena earlier today.

The Ducks were down one of their star players—Sedona Prince, who sat out the game due to injury—but still managed to fly by the Utes thanks partially to impressive play from a promising true freshman and a skilled senior.

Te-Hina Paopao and Erin Boley finished shooting 7-of-11 from the floor for a total of 17 points apiece. Paopao has lived up to her reputation by becoming the only one of Oregon’s five 5-star freshman to snatch a starting role on this deep Duck roster, and that is due to her attacking mentality on both sides of the court. She also tallied four assists, two rebounds, went 1-of-4 from three, and hit both of her shots from the charity stripe.

Boley once again made it clear that she is the new leader of the team by finishing her third consecutive game with at least 17 points. The senior has always been a great three-point shooter, finishing this particular game 2-of-3 from three-point land, but lately she has been using her strength and size to improve on the boards. She grabbed four defensive rebounds and one offensive rebound, but more importantly, she’s provided the veteran presence that this young-but-talented team needs to pick up where the program last left off.

Oregon raced out to a 20-4 lead and never looked back. Taylor Mikesell, Taylor Chavez and Nyara Sabally were the other three Ducks to get the start and scored a combined 14 points due to a heavy player rotation and the hot hands of Paopao and Boley.

Boley scored the first five points to give Oregon the early lead, then Mikesell took the assist from Paopao to drain a three and start a 15-2 run to end the opening quarter. Sabally, once again, looked dominant on the court. In just 20 minutes of play, she recorded seven points, eight rebounds, four blocks, two assists and a steal.

Sydney Parrish, Jaz Shelley and Angela Dugalic took full advantage of their limited playing time by scoring 12, 11 and 9 points, respectively. Dugalic and Shelley helped close out the second quarter and a three-pointer by the former gave Oregon a 45-to-20 lead going into the half.

Twelve different Ducks played in today’s game, and ten of them scored. Lydia Giomi tacked on four points and Maddie Scherr hit one of her two free throw attempts. Oregon’s bench scored 37 points, which helped the team coast to a 42-point victory in which they never trailed.

Overall, the Ducks shot 55.6 percent from the floor (35-of-63), 31.8 percent from the triple (7-of-22), and hit only eight of their 16 shots from the charity stripe. Despite some impressive scores, it was the Duck defense that won the day against Utah. The Utes were held to just 28.6 percent from the floor and 15.4 percent from the three. Oregon was also able to rack up 21 points off of Utah’s 19 turnovers. All but one Ute was held to singe-digit scoring: Niyah Becker - 11 points.

And to end on a positive note, Prince took to social media to say she’d be back soon!

GO DUCKS!

BOX SCORE

NEXT UP: @ Oregon State

Sunday, 4 PM, PAC-12 Network