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Endyia Rogers leads Oregon to emphatic blowout win over USC

Jarrid Denneyby:Jarrid Denney•01/01/23•

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(Photo by Donald Page/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

The No. 17 Oregon Ducks entered Sunday shorthanded and in need of a bounce-back win following Friday’s sloppy loss to UCLA.

They responded by delivering one of their more complete performances of the season.

Oregon (11-3, 2-1 Pac-12) topped the USC Trojans (11-3, 1-2) 73-45 at Matthew Knight Arena Sunday afternoon to salvage a series split with the Los Angeles schools in Eugene.

The Ducks ran the Trojans off the floor early in the game, racing out to a 19-8 lead after the first quarter, and never slowed down.

“I’m really proud of our team,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said. “That was one heck of a bounce-back game. I thought we played one of our best games of the year. Defensively, we were on point. We got off to a great start. We flipped the turnovers. We turned them over 20 times tonight and they didn’t turn us over as many.”

Endyia Rogers, who spent the first two years of her career at USC, led the way for the Ducks with 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting and also added six assists. Taya Hanson buried five three-pointers and scored 17 points, and Chance Gray chipped in 14 points for Oregon.

Sophomore center Phillipina Kyei scored six points and grabbed a career-high 20 rebounds.

“Some good individual performances,” Graves said. “I’ve been coaching a long time and have had some really good players. I told (Kyei) I’ve only had one other player ever get 20 rebounds in a game. That was pretty cool.”

The Ducks shot 44% from the field and went 7-of-16 (44%) from three. They outscored the Trojans 34-14 in the paint.

“We’ve had some great starts this year, and in some of the games we’ve struggled in, we didn’t start that way early,” Graves said. “I loved the energy. Practice yesterday was one of the best ones we’ve had. I think they were, I won’t say embarrassed, but they were disappointed in how we played on Friday night and how we coached.

“I think they were very determined.”

Oregon was without senior guard Ahlise Hurst, who suffered an apparent ankle injury during Friday’s loss to the Bruins.

Coming into the day, it was believed that the Ducks would only have seven healthy players available as a result.

But they got a major boost when Kennady Basham went through pregame warmups and ultimately felt healthy enough to play.

Basham, a 6-foot-7 forward and a 4-star signee in the class of 2022, checked into the game in the second quarter, marking her first appearance since Oregon’s Nov. 7 season-opener. The standout freshman has been sidelined with a right knee injury for the past seven weeks.

Basham played nine minutes and scored two points.

“She was really excited before the game,” Graves said of Basham. “The team was excited to have her back. I thought that was really cool. They talked about it. They rallied around it. …I thought she did a really good job.”

Basham’s return will be key for an Oregon squad that has been playing with just one player taller than 6-foot-4 for the majority of the season.

The Ducks will look to carry their momentum into next week as they prepare for one of their more significant matchups of the Pac-12 slate. They will travel to Tempe to face Arizona State (7-6, 0-2 Pac-12) on Jan. 6.

Then, next Sunday, Oregon will travel to Tucson to face No. 18 Arizona (12-1, 2-0).

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