Ducks Rally in Fourth, Fall to No. 8 Stanford

Sunday, February 26

Eugene, OR

1:00 PM

University of Oregon

18-12, 8-10P12

Stanford

25-5, 15-3P12

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Stanford	15	12	22	16	65
Oregon	15	6	15	23	59

Oti Gildon Jacinta Vandenberg vs. Stanford 2016-17

Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com

02/26/17 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Oregon outscored the Cardinal, 23-16, in the fourth quarter but couldn't finish off the comeback on Sunday afternoon.

By: Joe Waltasti

EUGENE, Ore. – The Oregon women's basketball team staged a furious fourth quarter rally but lost, 65-59, on Sunday to No. 8 ranked Stanford.

The Ducks (18-12, 8-10 Pac-12) now into Pac-12 Tournament play after finishing sixth in the league standings.

HOW IT HAPPENED: Stanford jumped out to an early lead but the Ducks battled back to tie it, 15-15, at the end of the first quarter. A couple three-pointers gave Sabrina Ionescu a team-high six points going into the second.

Stanford's defense turned up the intensity in the second, as the Cardinal held the Ducks to just six points in the quarter. Oregon went into halftime down, 27-21. Ionescu and fellow freshman Ruthy Hebard had combined for 15 of the Ducks' 21 points at the break.

Stanford started to slowly build up its lead in the third quarter. An Erica McCall jumper with 5:56 left in the third gave the Cardinal its first double-digit lead, 36-25. A Maite Cazorla three-pointer seconds later cut it back down to an eight-point edge for the Cardinal but Stanford took a 49-36 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Ducks didn't fold, however, scoring eight unanswered points to start the fourth quarter to make it a 49-44 lead for the Cardinal with 7:10 remaining to play. Oregon made it a four-point game twice down the stretch, both at 58-54, with 1:18 to play and 61-57, with 52 seconds remaining. But Stanford hit free throws in the final minutes to ice the game.

HEAD COACH KELLY GRAVES
"Obviously I'm disappointed in the outcome today but I was really proud of our basketball team and the way we battled back and had a chance there at the end. I thought we played really well defensively for the most part and I liked our energy and I thought we did a lot of good things but we again just didn't have a great shooting night especially in the first half and we got beat on the boards and that was a big difference."

BOX SCORE: Sabrina Ionescu finished with a team-high 18 point plus seven rebounds and three assists. Fellow freshman Ruthy Hebard posted 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting and Oti Gildon came off the bench to score 10 points, including 4-of-4 at the line.

PAC-12 TOURNAMENT: Oregon will be the No. 6 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament starting Thursday at KeyArena in Seattle.