Make Way for Huskies; Westbrook is Home

Evina Westbrook (22) will experience her homecoming this afternoon as the Huskies play the Ducks. Credit: UConn Athletics.

The No.9 UConn Huskies play in Eugene, Oregon to take on the Ducks. The Ducks are currently 9-5 on their season and recently upset No.7 Arizona on January 15th. Like the Huskies, the Ducks have faced Covid cancellations and a plentiful of injuries. This will be the fifth all-time meeting between the two teams, having last played on February 3rd, 2020. UConn lost this matchup after outscoring the Ducks in their first three meetings. This game serves as senior Evina Westbrook's homecoming, a Salem native. 

There are only three current Huskies who have faced the Ducks in their last matchup. Seniors Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Christyn Williams, along with junior Aubrey Griffin. Williams and Nelson-Ododa were starters alongside Chrystal Dangerfield, Kyla Irwin, and Megan Walker. This was a tough game for the Huskies are two Ducks earned double-doubles and were hot on the defensive glass. The Huskies lost 56-74 at Gample Pavilion.

Prior to their 2020 matchup, the Huskies have won the three other games against the Ducks. The Huskies' 111th consecutive victory came from their third meeting on March 27th, 2017. The Huskies beat the Ducks 90-52 to continue on the NCAA Tournament. Naphessa Collier scored 28 points and Gabby Williams added 25. The Huskies also met the Ducks twice in the 2012-13 season. UConn earned both wins, winning both by over 40 points.

Nelson-Ododa (Left) and Williams (13) defend Oregon's Minyon Moore in 2020. Credit: Jessica Hill, AP.

Now it's time to take a dive in the Oregon season thus far. The Ducks won their first three games of the season taking down Idaho State, Dixie State, and Oklahoma in the first round of the Battle for Atlantis tournament in November. They then lost their next two B4A games to No.1 South Carolina and, now No.24, USF. Before returning to Eugene, the Ducks had injuries in key players before the South Caroline game. In the original Associated Press rankings on November 15th, the Ducks were ranked No.9 while the Huskies were ranked third. A week later, Oregon dropped to the No.15 spot and was eventually out-ranked by December 6th.

Most recently the Ducks have played two ranked teams. The Ducks lost to the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal on January 7th, 68-80. The Ducks were again down players due to Covid. Saturday, the Ducks were back on their home court to take on No.7 Arizona. The Wildcats outscored Oregon till the fourth quarter when the Ducks lead 18-5 in the scoring. Tied at the final buzzer, overtime was on the horizon. In their last effort to win, the Ducks completed a three-player pass to have the ball end up in Sydney Parrish’s hands. Sedona Prince got the rebound off Parrish’s missed shot and passed to Endyia Rogers who scored in the last second.

Players to watch today at Te-Hina PaoPao, Prince, and Nyara Sabally. With the Ducks heights, it is a perfect matchup for the Huskies. Though Prince is 6’7 and freshman Phillipina Kyei is 6’8, the two players are not typically on the post together. Starting with PaoPao, she is a 5’9, sophomore guard. PaoPao loves to find the open lane for layups and will try to draw fouls on the post players. She recently returned from an injury but has been a consistent scorer for the Ducks. Against Arizona, she scored 24, had 3 assists, and a steal.

Sedona Prince is a 6’7, red-shirted sophomore. Prince is a starter for Oregon but did not start on Saturday after rejoining the team after having Covid. She plays a mean game and will go for the toughest blocks. She can assist when the post is defended. Prince is not the quickest player on the court but provides roughly 10 points per game. Other players to watch today are Rogers, Parrish, Sabally, Ahlise Hurst, and Chanaya Pinto. The Ducks can score far off the arch, will push for steals, and will draw tons of contact to get fouls called against the Huskies.

Caroline Ducharme (33) goes for a three-pointer against Xavier on Saturday. Credit: UConn Athletics.

The Huskies do not fear the Duck's defensive work. Freshman Caroline Ducharme is having the best season a player could have in her first year. She is averaging 18.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 2.2 apg, 1.4 spg, and 1.1 bpg. She can score off the arch but can also run the court to assist off steals. Ducharme has been a key player for Geno Auriemma since mid-December, even when the team faced two losses.

“I think there being a flow in having games has really helped us,” said Ducharme after their game against Xavier. We went for a stretch where we didn’t play for a while. So we had a lot of time in practice, a lot of time to fine-tune things and look at specifics on the defensive and offensive end. Being able to actually have games and being to see [progess] I think has really helped us.”

Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Christyn Williams have also had stellar games recently. Nelson-Ododa scored only 11 points on Saturday but was present to show her defensive effort. She had 8 blocks, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. One blocking foul was called against ONO but the rest of her blocks were clean. In the player's post-game conference, ONO talked about how honest Auriemma got with his seniors and asked if they were going to step up for their team.

“He [Auriemma] definitely made that a very big point of emphasis,” said Nelson-Ododa. “How he sees players [from other teams] are playing with a ‘dead face.’ For us personally, we don't want to be like that, we don't want to play like that, this isn’t how UConn players have played in the past. Bringing that energy from the jump; it starts from the warm-ups, then the start of the game, and carrying it on over into how we play.”

Amari DeBerry looks to shoot a layup against Xaiver's Megan Harkey. Credit: UConn Athletics.

Auriemma got to play his whole available bench against Xaiver and every player scored. They won 78-41, outscoring the Musketeers in every quarter. Williams was the second-leading scorer with 19 points and earned most of them off of steals from Ducharme or Nika Mühl. Evina Westbrook was a key player on offense with Mühl. Westbrook scored 5 points, adding 4 assists, and 3 rebounds. Aaliyah Edwards and Dorka Juhász were tough post players on defense. We got to see sophomore Piath Gabriel play for the final ten minutes of the game scoring her career-high 9 points. Freshman Amari DeBerry also subbed in for 5 minutes to retire Juhász from the game.

Eugene, Oregon is a far destination for the Huskies. They have played a game almost every other day this past week. They played last Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Sunday they traveled to Oregon to play this afternoon. Friday they are back in Storrs before traveling to Queens, NY on Sunday.

“Traveling like that and having a schedule like this is definitely tough mentally and physically,” said Nelson-Ododa. “That’s no excuse. We have to stay locked in, especially mentally. That is where it begins and we have to go in and do what we need to do.”

The Oregon Ducks are currently not ranked in the AP Top 25. The UConn Huskies have moved up to the No. 9 position this morning and are No.1 in the Big East. Today’s game is at 5 pm EST, 2 pm local Oregon time on ESPN 2.