The scoreboards inside McArthur Court on Tuesday ventured into rare territory for an Oregon women’s basketball game.
In the first exhibition for the Ducks in new coach Paul Westhead’s up-tempo system, the UO women pummeled overmatched Southern Oregon 109-47 before 1,692 fans.
The Ducks haven’t hit triple digits in a counting game since 2005, and haven’t done so at Mac Court since 1999. After Tuesday’s performance, it looks as if that might change this season.
“That was pretty cool,” sophomore point guard Nia Jackson said. “It was fun, a lot of fun.”
It was also sloppy at times, both ways. Southern Oregon committed 45 turnovers and shot 23.3 percent, products of a pressure defense that Westhead said was a bright spot Tuesday. What he didn’t like were the Ducks’ 24 turnovers.
“I don’t like turnovers,” Westhead said. “We had about 20 more than I can live with. (But) you know, that’s first game stuff, too.”
Westhead is asking the Ducks to play at a furious pace, on both offense and defense. He substituted liberally, with all 11 available scholarship players playing at least 11 minutes, and walk-on Laura Stanulis the last of 12 players who scored.
Jackson, Micaela Cocks, Jasmin Holliday, Amanda Johnson and Victoria Kenyon started for the Ducks, who were without sharp-shooter Taylor Lilley because of an ankle injury. The players seemed generally comfortable with how they handled the pace, though Westhead expects them to get better with time.
“It might take us a half-dozen games, to be honest with you,” Westhead said. “I hope it doesn’t take 30.”
The Ducks were at their best with Jackson running the point, before she picked up her fourth foul early in the second half. After missing all of last season with a knee injury, Jackson had 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting Tuesday, and had three assists with three turnovers.
“She was decisive,” Westhead said. “Even though she had a couple turns that in a normal game I think she won’t, overall I was very pleased with her play.”
Cocks led the Ducks with 22 points, and the sophomore tandem of Johnson and Holliday appeared poised to make big strides in their second season. Johnson had 19 points, nine steals and seven rebounds, and Holliday had 16 points and 10 rebounds, showing no signs that her offseason hamstring injury is still lingering.
“I’ve been working on getting it stronger, and it’s where it should be,” Holliday said.
Westhead has stated a goal of shooting in the first five seconds of each possession, and it took the Ducks eight seconds to score their first basket off a Southern Oregon turnover, in the game’s opening minutes. They cut it to four seconds on the next possession, and went up 9-2 on a three-pointer that left Cocks’ hand with 28 seconds left on the 30-second shot clock, the Ducks’ first possession after an SOU basket.
“If you score on us, if we’re really on top of our game we’re going to make you pay,” Westhead said.
Oregon’s game-opening run ultimately reached 19-2 before the first official timeout, at which point Westhead began wholesale substitutions.
In the history of UO women’s basketball, the Ducks have reached 100 points 23 times in counting games, and they’ve only surpassed the 109 points from Tuesday five times. Those numbers figure to take a jump over the course of this season, and the school record of 121 points from a 1979 game may be in jeopardy.
“I want to get to 130,” Holliday said. “I know that’s wishful thinking. But we’ll see.”