WACO, Tex. — The Oregon Ducks visited the No. 13 Baylor Bears on Sunday and dropped their second straight game in a 71-51 defeat.
Despite holding the Bears to a season low in scoring, Oregon’s offense was stifled by Baylor’s physical defense.
Oregon’s record on the season drops to 4-3 by an average losing margin of 30.0 points in those three defeats. The Ducks have also lost to Santa Clara at home by 39 and at Portland by 31 on Thursday night.
Baylor’s physical and aggressive man-to-man defense was able to disrupt Oregon’s ball handlers, forcing 11 first-half turnovers. The Bears were aggressive getting into the fastbreak, hitting outlet passes for easy layups in transition, outscoring the Ducks 13-0 on fastbreak points in the first half.
Baylor’s physicality showed up on the glass as well throughout the half, as they turned their 8-0 offensive rebounding advantage into four second-chance points.
After Chance Gray hit a floater with 6:22 left in the half, Oregon wouldn’t make another field goal until the 8:49 mark of the third quarter, which included 4:34 with no points to end the first and start the second half.
The second half was better for the Ducks, as they were only outscored by seven and were able to hold the Bears to under 40 percent shooting from the field, but Baylor’s defense still proved to be too much for Oregon.
Phillipina Kyei led the way for the Ducks in their loss, scoring 15 points while hauling in 12 boards for her fourth double-double of the season.
“We gotta take care of the ball, we gotta take care of the boards,” said head coach Kelly Graves postgame. “Those are two areas that we didn't do tonight, and it hurt us. They made us pay for both.”
Oregon was well outmatched in both of these areas by Baylor. The Bears won the offensive rebound battle 18-4, which they were able to turn into 15 second chance points — 10 more than the Ducks. Baylor also had 15 steals and used those turnovers to create easy looks for themselves in transition, outscoring Oregon 21-2 on fastbreaks and 42-22 in the paint.
“We did some good things, we just gotta limit them to one shot, and then take care of the ball, and we just didn’t do that well enough today,” Graves said.
Despite both teams finishing the game shooting 39 percent from the field, those extra looks gave Baylor 22 more shots than Oregon, which proved to be the difference in the game.
Overall, Graves said he was “encouraged” by what he saw from his team on Sunday, especially compared to their recent losses.
“A couple of games this year, when we would make a few bad plays, they’d go on a run, we’d go into the abyss… and tonight that didn’t happen," he said. "We fought, and they would make a little run and then we’d come back, we’d answer, and we just haven’t shown that in a couple of the games that we’ve lost this year.”
The Ducks will be looking forward to returning home after their three-game road trip, playing their next four games at Matthew Knight Arena before they head to St. George, Utah to participate in the Trailblazer Classic.
Graves said the focus for his team right now is on their final exams this week. Oregon’s next game will tip off at 6 PM on December 8 when the Idaho Vandals come to Eugene.
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