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The 18th ranked Oregon State Beavers take on 7th ranked Oregon Ducks in the 99th and 100th editions of the Women’s Basketball Civil War. First up, the Beavers host the Ducks at Gill Coliseum on Friday night at 8 PM. Then the Ducks will play host at Matthew Knight Arena on Sunday at 5 PM. You can check out both of those games by watching on the Pac-12 Network, listening on Oregon State AllAccess, or following along on Twitter. Let’s take a closer look at the Ducks.
Oregon (7th in AP Poll, 17-2 overall, 6-0 conference)
The Oregon Ducks come into Gill Friday night with the league’s best record and ranking. They have beaten ranked teams in Texas A&M (twice), UCLA, and Arizona State. In the conference they rank first in scoring offense, scoring margin, free throw percentage, and three-point shots made.
Oregon is led by the nation’s career all time triple-double leader in sophomore guard Sabrina Ionescu. She leads the league in points at 19.2 points per game and assists at 7.2. Sophomore Ruthy Hebard leads the Ducks in rebounds at 8.2 per game and is second in points at 16.8. Oregon also features three other double digit scorers in freshman forward Satou Sabally, senior guard Lexi Bando, and junior guard Maite Cazorla.
Coach Kelly Graves is 0-6 all time against the Beavers since taking the head coaching job in 2014. Oregon is currently on a 13 game losing streak against Oregon state that dates back to 2011 as well. Is this the year that they break the streak?
Prediction
This match-up features the conferences top two teams in scoring margin, field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage, and assists. Oregon State was stuck in a rut two weeks ago after they lost two games in Southern California and giving up 48 turnovers. But they got things back on track last week by beating a ranked Arizona State team and then dropping 15 threes on Arizona. Oregon is on a nine game winning streak and off to their best conference start in history. I think Oregon State utilizes their current moment and the home crowd to take the first game before dropping the finale in Eugene. The longest Civil War streak in women’s basketball ends at 14.