Paul Westhead is getting down to the bare bones when it comes to goals for his Oregon women’s basketball team.
Limiting offensive re-bounds, shooting better from the floor and maintaining an uptempo pace are all good and well. But entering this afternoon’s 2:30 tipoff at USC in the Galen Center, the Ducks have a simple, big-picture wish.
“I think a key right now is, win a game,” said Westhead, whose team dropped its fifth straight Thursday, at UCLA. “How we do it right now is not as important as that we do it.”
Following Thursday’s 104- 80 loss, Westhead called Friday’s practice “a crucial day for us to get our act together.” Westhead said after the workout that defensive rebounding — denying second chances for the opposition, and feeding Oregon’s fastbreak offense — was a big focus.
Despite the losing streak, Westhead figures to field the same lineup, and expects to see the same uptempo pace, when the Ducks face the Trojans today.
“I’m not one to make radical changes and say players and scheme have been wrong,” he said. “I think we’re playing the right people and we have a good approach to the game.
“We just have to make it happen.”
The Ducks have been in position to do so in each of their last two games, at home against Stanford and at UCLA. But in both cases Oregon was badly outplayed down the stretch, and a close game turned into a blowout.
Oregon trailed by just five points against both Stanford and UCLA with 8:30 left in each of those games. Then, the Ducks went cold, whether because of conditioning or other factors.
“We train our players to be more fit than the opposition in the last 10 minutes of the game,” Westhead said. “It shouldn’t be hitting us as a surprise; we’ve got to learn that we should be well-schooled in that.
“On the other hand, if you were objective, you might look out there and say, ‘hey, your players look tired.’ The truth might be somewhere in the middle.
“It’s something we work at, pressing and running and sustaining that pace.”
Earlier this week, UO sophomore Amanda Johnson brushed aside a question about the team’s fitness.
“I think we’re holding up,” Johnson said. “Our coaching staff knows what they’re doing. Practices aren’t going to kill us, going into games.”
Besides cold shooting in the second half, the Ducks continue to be plagued by rebounding issues. It didn’t help at UCLA that starting post Victoria Kenyon was saddled with four fouls throughout the second half, and that backup forward Nicole Canepa fouled out after just eight minutes.
“We tried to space them out, and it didn’t work for us,” Westhead said. “We’re a little short-handed in the frontcourt.”
Today’s opponent, the Women of Troy, entered this week last in the Pac-10 in rebounding margin at minus-4.9 per game, and last in offensive rebounds with 11.4 per game. And it’s not because opportunities have been rare — USC is ninth in the Pac-10 in field-goal shooting, though first from three-point range.
Whatever the formula, it has worked so far. USC is second in the Pac-10 at 7-1, its only loss to the nation’s second-ranked team, Stanford.
Leading the way has been budding Pac-10 star Ashley Corral, a well-rounded threat who is among the conference leaders in points, assists, steals and three-point shooting.
UO WOMEN vs. USC
2:30 p.m. today at the Galen Center, Los Angeles. No TV. Radio: KUJZ-FM (95.3).