Te-Hina Paopao, Endyia Rogers lead Oregon to dominant NIT win over Rice
The Oregon women’s basketball program used dominant first and third quarters to cruise through the second round of the NIT and extend its season on Monday.
The Ducks (19-14) notched a 78-53 win over Rice at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene to advance to the quarterfinals of the NIT. As has been the case for much of the season, their veteran backcourt duo carried them on the offensive end.
Oregon senior guard Endyia Rogers scored 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting and junior guard Te-Hina Paopoa scored 17 and went 4-of-9 from three-point range.
Paopao, who endured a scoring slump toward the end of the regular season, has found her footing in the month of March and has now scored double-digit points in seven straight games.
Freshman forward Grace VanSlooten finished with 17 points, 11 of which came in the third quarter. Sophomore center Phillipina Kyei nearly tallied a triple-double and finished with nine points, 15 boards, and eight blocks in 32 minutes.
Freshman center Kennedy Bashem was sidelined for the game, as she was in concussion protocol. That left the Ducks with just eight scholarship players available. All eight of those players played at least 14 minutes on Monday, and six Ducks scored at least eight points.
Oregon came flying out of the gates and raced out to an 11-3 lead behind the sharp shooting of Rogers and Paopao.
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But the Owls slowly began to chip away and took an 18-17 lead by the time the first quarter ended. Rice stayed in contention in the second quarter, in large part, because of a flurry of Oregon turnovers.
The Ducks shot 14-of-29 from the floor over the first 20 minutes but led just 34-31 at halftime because they turned the ball over nine times.
But they took control of the game for good late in the third quarter, closing out the period on a 14-2 run that sent them into the fourth with a 57-40 lead. That run included eight points from VanSlooten, who tallied her highest-scoring total since Jan. 27 at Cal.
In the fourth quarter, senior guard Ahlise Hurst put the finishing touch on the win with a pair of three-pointers off the bench and scored eight total points in the final period.
Oregon will move on to host San Diego (19-13) this Thursday in the NIT quarterfinals after the Toreros topped UC Irvine on Monday. The game is set for a 6 p.m. tip-off at Matthew Knight Arena.
