Oregon Completes Championship Run By Crushing Stanford 89-56
LAS VEGAS, NEV. — The Oregon Ducks take down the reigning tournament champion,the Stanford Cardinal, in dominant fashion, 89 to 56.
Things looked promising for Stanford by the end of the first quarter as they led by three, even shutting down Sabrina Ionescu offensively.
But Oregon would come back by putting it into full gear defensively with Minyon Moore as the catalyst, holding Stanford’s key guard Kiana Williams to 2 points.
“On the biggest night, on the biggest stage, she was able to step up her game,” said Oregon Head Coach Kelly Graves. “And that changed, I thought the whole game.”
The Ducks put on quite the show in the second with Ionescu finding her rhythm putting up 15 points in the quarter and finishing with 20 for the game.
Oregon closed out the half on a 21-4 run putting them ahead by 17.
“I think we started out very well,” said Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer. “We had a very good first quarter, and we just really struggled after that. And for a lot of that, give the credit to Oregon.”
The Ducks continued to command the court on both sides of the ball, defensively locking in on the Cardinal’s ability to score in transition. On the other hand, the Ducks hit back-to-back threes by Ionescu and Taylor Chavez making the Oregon crowd go crazy during the third.
“I mean we run out and the whole crowd stands up and starts to cheer, it’s like we’re back at Matthew Knight with a home crowd,” said Oregon forward Ruthy Hebard who ended the night with 24 points. “They’re a big reason why we win, cause we just feed off of them and their energy.”
The Pac-12 Tournament MVP, Ionescu, and Oregon hope to continue to fill arenas with fans as they will have a chance to host in the NCAA Tournament with the Portland bracket later this month.
“So we're praying for Portland. I hope that's where they put us,” said Graves. “I think that would be special. I've got a feeling that if they do, we're going to break some regional attendance records up there.”
