TUCSON, Ariz. — Paul Westhead unleashed Showtime with the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers, whipsawed Loyola Marymount into the NCAA men’s Elite Eight and stoked the Phoenix Mercury to their first WNBA crown.
Now, approaching age 71 next month, the rookie Oregon women’s basketball coach seems determined to fry scoreboards around the Pac-10.
Daring Arizona to not only defeat the Ducks’ full-court press but also beat them to the basket, Westhead watched the Wildcats shoot 62.3 percent on their way to a 119-112 victory at the McKale Center on Saturday afternoon.
For those with a sturdy abacus:
The point total was 10 more than the previous Pac-10 record of 221 in California’s 115-106 victory over USC nearly 21 years ago.
Arizona’s 119 points were a school record and the most ever allowed by an Oregon team.
Duck junior Nicole Canepa, in her first start this season, matched the UO mark of 38 points last achieved by former coach Bev Smith in 1981 against Montana, after Debbie Adams went for 38 against Montana the previous season.
The loss left Oregon 12-5 overall and 3-2 in the Pac-10 coming off the weekend sweep in the desert.
“The bad news is we lost the game,” Westhead said in his KUJZ-FM postgame interview. “The good news is, we tried to create a fast pace and we did that.
“When they cracked our press, they didn’t pull the ball out but went right at us. We have to do a better job of stopping that attack at the basket, and I’m confident we can do that.”
The Wildcats (9-7, 3-3) didn’t seem to notice or care, as freshman Davellyn Whyte scored 39 points, topping her previous Pac-10 high of 34 against USC two weeks ago and setting another UA record.
When Whyte wasn’t having her way from the field (12-for-17) or the foul line (10-for-12), junior Ify Ibekwe was going off for a career-high 32 points and 14 rebounds, and junior Soana Lucet added another 28 points in just 19 minutes before fouling out.
Arizona’s big three went 34-for-47 (72.3 percent) from the field, 24-of-30 (80.0 percent) from the foul line and finished one point shy of 100 — or eight more than the Wildcats had scored in any of their previous 15 games.
Yet through it all, the Ducks with their nation-leading scoring offense still had a shot.
Canepa, starting because Victoria Kenyon was serving a one-game suspension for slapping an Arizona State player in Thursday night’s loss to the Sun Devils, already had a career-high 21 points by halftime as Oregon trailed, 56-52.
Arizona pushed its lead to double digits five minutes into the second half and had it up to 16 points, 97-81, with about seven minutes left, but the Ducks sliced it back to five behind Canepa, sophomore Nia Jackson and junior Kristi Fallin.
However, Whyte’s three-point play with 2:02 to play made it 110-102, and Oregon never got closer than seven after that.
Fallin, a transfer from Umqua Community College and Roseburg High graduate, finished with 18 points and hit 4-of-6 three-pointers in 15 minutes off the bench. She had scored 20 points total in her first 11 games as a Duck.
“I finally gave her some minutes where she could settle down,” Westhead said. “She made good shots and she had good court presence.
“She played like she was comfortable out there.”
Amanda Johnson added 17 points, and Jackson and Taylor Lilley had 14 apiece, but Oregon missed the scoring punch off the bench of Jasmin Holliday, who went scoreless in just six minutes largely because of foul trouble.
“She never really got going today,” Westhead said. “She was a victim of fouls and that’s a shame, because we needed her tenacity.”
This week the Ducks are back at Mac Court, where they’re 9-1 so far awaiting visits by California on Thursday night and No. 2 Stanford at 11 a.m. Saturday — the early start to accommodate a Fox Sports Northwest telecast.
“We’re anxious to get home and get some things straightened out,” Westhead said. “This will be the biggest weekend at home coming up for us.
“We’ve got other big ones coming up too, but the one right in front of us is the biggest.”
PAC-10 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
Stanford 5 0 1.000 — 14 1
UCLA 3 1 .750 11/2 10 5
USC 3 1 .750 11/2 9 6
Oregon 3 2 .600 2 12 5
Washington 3 3 .500 21/2 8 8
Arizona 3 3 .500 21/2 9 7
Arizona St. 3 3 .500 21/2 11 6
California 2 3 .400 3 8 8
Oregon St. 1 4 .200 4 9 6
Wash. St. 0 6 .000 51/2 5 12
Saturday’s Results
Arizona 119, Oregon 112
Arizona State 56, Oregon State 47
Stanford 66, Washington 51
California 75, Washington State 68
Today’s GAme
UCLA at USC