MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2024
DEJA KELLY’S BLOCKBUSTER TRANSFER SPARKS HOPE
Can the Ducks’ star point guard lead them back to dominance?
‘Tis the season to dazzle every Duck on your holiday list. A lot of green and a bit of yellow. Gifts for them and maybe a treat for you. Quirky, cozy, and full of spirit. Find something for every Duck and every nest.
dazzle ‘em oregon… dazzle ‘em oregon… we've got you covered. we've got you covered.
Kelly Graves has Oregon women’s basketball rejuvenated
The Ducks’ head coach made big changes in the offseason. So far, they’ve paid off.
BY LILY CRANE Sports Reporter
Oregon women’s basketball didn’t have many joyous moments in the past two seasons.
When head coach Kelly Graves was interviewed on the Big Ten Network following the program’s first Top-25 victory in over a year, his smile returned.
The entire Ducks team interrupted Graves’ interview to jump around him in celebration. He held his hands into an “O.”
“See what I’m dealing with everyday,” Graves said playfully to the camera.
The previous two years seemed like an eternity for a program that had become accustomed to success since Graves’ arrival a decade ago. Between injuries plaguing the roster, star players transferring out and a record 14 straight losses to end the 2023-24 season, it appeared that Oregon’s days of consistently making the NCAA Tournament had ended.
But Graves and his staff got to work in the offseason gathering commitments from top players in the transfer portal. It has paid off with a perfect record through four games, including a 76-74 win over No. 12 Baylor University.
“I just think we needed to freshen things up,” Graves said before the start of the season. “We’ve done that in roster turnover and in coaching responsibilities.”
Among the transfers into the program
was Deja Kelly, one of the top point guards in the portal. She was a three-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference First Team selection with the University of North Carolina. Kelly’s transfer to the Ducks was the first signal that the energy was about to shift within the program.
Oregon has added strong veteran leadership with the additions of Kelly and Alexis Whitfield, as well as the return of Peyton Scott from injury.
“[The seniors] are hungry,” Graves said ahead of the team’s exhibition game on Nov. 1. “A lot of them haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament and this gives them one last chance to do so and I certainly think we’re a good enough team to get there.”
In the previous two seasons when the team didn’t make the postseason, the roster was smaller and the stars were younger. The Ducks, at times, struggled to have enough healthy players required to play a game.
Not only does Graves have a bigger roster this season, but he expressed that he feels comfortable playing 12 players a game.
“We wanted to do a lot more defensively, put a lot of pressure on people, plus we have the depth to do it,” Graves said following the first win of the season. “We didn’t have that. We weren’t in that position in the past.”
Endyia Rogers and Te-Hina Paopao were two of Oregon’s top players in 2022-23. They both transferred the following season.
Last year, it was sophomores Chance Gray and Grace VanSlooten who led the team. Again, they both left.
Graves didn’t just stop at getting new stars from the portal this time. This season, the Ducks appear to have what they didn’t in the past two: supplementary scoring. Seven different Ducks reached double figures in the opening four contests.
A win like the Oregon had against the Bears on Nov. 10 didn’t feel possible the last two years. The difference is that this team seems to be buying into what Graves is telling them.
“We’ve kind of talked to them all year about, ‘Hey, we can be a really really great team,’ but until you see it and until you get a win like this, you may not believe it,” Graves said after the Baylor victory. “So they’ve got that now in the back of their heads.”
This Ducks’ squad is engaged even when they’re on the bench. They’re animated in the postgame huddle.
And for the first time in a long time, Graves has a team that believes it can be a top team in the Big Ten and make a postseason run.
ABOVE: Head coach Kelly Graves speaks to his team from the bench. The Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team took on the Santa Clara Broncos on Nov. 18, 2023 in Eugene. (Molly McPherson/Emerald)
Altman returns for 15th year as men’s head coach Altman returns for 15th year as men’s head coach
One of the Pac-12’s greatest ever takes on the Big Ten
BY BECK PARSONS Sports Reporter
The 2024-25 season marks Dana Altman’s 36th as a Division I head coach and his 15th as the head coach of Oregon’s men’s basketball program. Over his previous 35 seasons as a head coach, Altman has solidified his status as a college basketball legend.
Altman began his head coaching career as Marshall University’s head coach in 1989 and became head coach at Kansas State University a year later. He led the team to a March Madness appearance in the 1992-93 season but soon moved again, taking over at Creighton University before the 1994-95 season.
After finally earning a winning record in the 1997-98 season, Altman’s career took off. The Bluejays appeared in five straight NCAA tournaments between 1999 and 2003 and won the Missouri Valley Conference Title in 2001-02.
Altman would make two more NCAA tournament appearances with Creighton in 2005 and 2007, but never took the team past the Round of 32. He departed Creighton for Oregon before the 2010 season, leaving the Bluejays with a career record of 327 wins and 176 losses. Greg McDermott, who’s coached Creighton ever since, begins the 2024-25 season only two wins shy of Altman’s program-best total.
Altman is also Oregon’s all-time winningest coach, holding an even better record of 348-152. He’s also the winningest coach in Pac-12 Tournament history (25-9) and is tied with former Arizona head coach Lute Olson for the most Pac-12 Championship titles with four.
However, those tournament records, as well as Oregon’s status as the last-ever Pac12 men’s basketball champions, are now part of a closed chapter in history. Altman knows that any future tournament success, be it conference or postseason, will only come following a successful season of Big Ten basketball.
For Altman, who guided Oregon through the 2018 introduction of the
transfer portal and the 2021 introduction of NIL rights, Oregon’s conference shift is another change, and has left the Ducks at a potential disadvantage in comparison to the Big Ten’s members.
“Those teams only have to make one trip, so I don’t think it’s that big of a deal for them,” Altman said of the Big Ten’s previous schools journeying west to play the division’s four ex-Pac-12 newcomer. Although Oregon will make five trips east, Altman doesn’t think the change will affect his players too harshly either.
“Fortunately, [the trips are] spaced out,” Altman said. “It will be more travel than usual, but we’re making some arrangements to make it as comfortable as possible for our guys.”
Oregon has four non-conference matchups remaining before its Dec. 4 Big Ten debut at USC. Altman’s Ducks will have plenty of things to work on in the meantime.
During Oregon’s Media Day, Altman repeatedly stressed the need for a different team mindset. “They all wanna score, they all wanna shoot the three, but we gotta get them to guard and rebound a lot more than what we’ve been doing,” he said.
Altman named that strategy as the key to Oregon’s last season, which saw them win the last-ever Pac-12 Tournament and advance to the NCAA Round of 32. “It wasn’t like we were scoring all the time. We had some good offensive outbursts at times, but defensively we just finally limited some possessions and started rebounding the ball better,” Altman said of last year’s postseason success.
Altman is an Oregon hoops legend. Now, he’s preparing to lead the Ducks against new challenges in the Big Ten Conference. But if history is any guide,
Altman’s Ducks will be winning games and appearing in postseasons for as long as he continues to call the shots.
BELOW: Head coach Dana Altman claps and cheers on his team. The Oregon Ducks men’s basketball team took on the Michigan Wolverines on Dec. 2, 2023, in Eugene.
(Molly McPherson/Emerald)
How Oregon men’s basketball will move on from N’Faly Dante
The
Ducks enter 2024 missing their most influential player, and they’ll look to recreate him with their entire squad
BY OWEN MURRAY Sports Reporter
It’s not easy to miss N’Faly Dante, but as Oregon men’s basketball assembled for its 2024 Big Ten Media Day, there was an obvious, 7-foot, 230-pound hole. A team searching for its identity was missing its central piece. The day was quieter than the last.
For the Ducks, replacing Dante, who graduated after winning Pac-12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 2023-24 and was drafted into the Houston Rockets’ system, won’t be a plug-and-play solution. The Malian was far too unique for that, and Dana Altman has no one close to his physicality and size.
Instead, they’ll look to “Dante-bycommittee”: a combination of center Nate Bittle and bigger, stronger forwards will execute Altman’s vision of a faster, smallball scheme that he hopes will allow the Ducks to thrive in their new conference.
Last year, Dante averaged 10 field goal attempts per game, to go with his 9.2 total rebounds and 17 points. That’s what the Ducks are trying to replace.
Bittle, Oregon’s only 7-footer on the roster this year, is returning from a frustrating junior season in Eugene. The center missed 31 of Oregon’s 36 total games due to an illness and wrist injury. He’s been rehabbing and added 30 lbs of muscle over the summer, so he will be a strong option when the Ducks need to go big.
Altman talked about Bittle’s value on defense at Oregon’s 2024 Big Ten Media Day — the local product is a rim defender and can at least give the Ducks a semblance of what Dante did in the defensive paint. Dante averaged 6.4 defensive rebounds in his final year in Oregon. No other player managed more than 3.5.
“He’s got by far the most blocks in practice,” Altman said. “He understands what we want to do…and we’ll need him on the floor for his rim protection.”
But through three games, Bittle averaged 7.7 defensive rebounds, including eight in the opener against UC Riverside. Given, it’s lesser competition than what Oregon faced down the stretch in 2023, but the signs are promising.
The frontcourt group around Dante last year wasn’t at its most physical, either. A freshman Kwame Evans Jr. was still learning how to throw his weight around, while 6-foot-5 Jadrian Tracey and 6-foot-6 Mookie Cook (when healthy) weren’t going to dominate that space either.
Enter Brandon Angel.
The 6-foot-8, 205-pound senior spent four years at Stanford, where he made a habit of bullying the Ducks inside. In his first game in Eugene, he continued: five total rebounds and 17 points (five for five from inside the arc) were key to Oregon’s win. He also went to the line for seven shots — and made all seven.
“Coach emphasized during one of the first timeouts (against Riverside) that we’ve got to cut better off the ball — not just stand on the perimeter,” Angel said postgame. “And the lanes were open when you cut and post up strong.”
Angel pointed out that the Ducks led the points in the paint margin that night, 48-22.
“So you take what the defense gives you,” he finished. “I think we all knew we had the advantage with our size in the paint.” Angel is averaging 10.3 points and 4.0 total rebounds per game through the first three games.
Evans Jr., the sophomore forward, is also ready to join that “bigger and stronger” conversation. He led the team in points on opening night (23) on 8-15 shooting and grabbed six rebounds. He’s not going to dominate the paint the way Dante did, but he showed more than flashes of a player who can draw attention and handle it well.
“He’s working harder,” Altman said after the Riverside game. “He’s bringing more effort to practice. When he plays hard, he’s really counting — sometimes he has a tendency to coast, and we’ve got to get him out of that mode. When he’s active on those
toes and going hard, he’s pretty good.”
The surrounding cast contains Tracey — a leader back for a final year — and finallyhealthy Mookie Cook. Cook’s pressing ability was what shone on opening night against the Highlanders, especially when the Ducks stepped up the court near the end of halves.
Altman is also insistent that transfer forward Supreme Cook’s debut will help in this department. The journeyman averaged 10.5 points and 8.0 rebounds in his lone year at Georgetown University, but hasn’t
Oregon’s Nate Bittle (32) screams from the bench in celebration.
The Oregon Ducks Men’s Basketball team took on the Stanford Cardinal at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene on Mar. 4th, 2023.
(Molly McPherson/ Emerald)
HOME AT LAST HOME AT LAST
After
a disappointing end to her North Carolina career, star senior guard Deja Kelly hopes to change the narrative at Oregon
BY JOE KRASNOWSKI Sports Reporter
Deja Kelly has the ball and you feel glued.
Fans at Matthew Knight Arena are beginning to know the feeling. Teammates and coaches already do.
But the true test of Kelly’s gravitational pull might have happened late in the fourth quarter in the Ducks’ upset win over then No. 12 Baylor.
On the back of Kelly, the Ducks pulled off an incredible upset, despite not playing their best ball.
No stranger to big moments, the fifthyear University of North Carolina transfer shared a less-satisfied sentiment.
“It’s important for us to be happy about it,” Kelly said. “But it’s only Game 3, so we’ve just got to continue to build off of it.”
Kelly is a modern face of women’s basketball with a multitude of NIL deals and sponsorships. She has over 400,000 followers on
Instagram and often adds to her YouTube channel. Kelly has used Oregon’s new conference as a positive too — hours after the Ducks’ opening-day win over Cal Baptist, she was back on the court as the sideline reporter for the men’s basketball Big Ten+ broadcast.
“That day was busy, the buildup I was super anxious, very nervous,” Kelly said. “But I was doing prep for the men’s game, the notes and cues for the game. There was a cut-off about an hour and a half before my game and I was like ‘ok it’s time to lock in on my game.’”
College kids are in college athletics by choice, but they’re also flawed and exposed nevertheless. Sometimes they’re Deja Kelly, a five-star guard committed to North Carolina, a top program in the country where hoops is everything and the first game of basketball season often results in canceled classes.
But sometimes they’re Kelly four years later, transferring out of that program, heading way out west to a team swirling in
basketball anonymity, only receiving questions for her move.
“I was a big part of that program that’s back on the national stage,” Kelly said in a TikTok video addressing the reason for her transfer shortly after her transfer. “I ultimately just carried that program on my back for four years in the most humble way.”
It’s a chore to reconcile doing what you believed you had to do, and getting panned for it — just ask Kelly.
“I found myself not playing with the joy that I used to play the game with,” Kelly said in the video. “That’s as blunt as I can get, and that is not a great feeling. I felt it early on in the season, midseason, to where I really just did not want to play.”
But finally, on the court, she’s found refuge at Oregon. A last chance to be what she insists she can be as a player.
Kelly’s field goal percentage, 3-point percentage and assist rate all dropped from her junior to senior year. She was the Tar Heels’ primary ball-handler with little reprieve, averaging over 36 minutes a game.
- Deja Kelly, Women’s Basketball Guard “
I found myself not playing with the joy that I used to play the game with.
“
“I know that there’s stuff that I have to continue to grow in my game and be consistent at and I felt like me transferring and going to Oregon was going to best help me do that and best prepare me,” Kelly said. “The efficiency? I feel like that will grow in a different system. Obviously, we’ll still see, but I’m pretty confident that a different system will allow me to operate a little better from a basketball standpoint.”
And so she has. Kelly is averaging 44.9% from the field — a ten-point increase from
The University of Oregon Ducks played the Baylor Bears Sunday night. Oregon guard Deja Kelly (25) prepares her shot at the free throw line. Oregon defeated Baylor 76-74. (Anna Liv Myklebust/Emerald)
the year prior — and has seen her rebound and assist averages increase from a year ago. She’s shooting the ball less, too — against the Bears she had 20 points. Her next game — a 66-35 blowout win — she had seven.
“Deja, she comes in with so many accolades, but I’m telling you, she does a lot of the dirty work,” Graves said after the Ducks’ win over Nevada. “I can see why she’s so highly regarded by everyone in the country.”
“I can see why she’s so highly regarded by everyone in the country.
“- Kelly Graves Women’s Basketball Head Coach
Still, Oregon and Deja Kelly win together, or it’s a five-month-long told-you-so for all her skeptics and doubters.
It certainly won’t all be on Kelly’s shoulders. Graves brought in seven other newcomers from other schools around the country, Oregon is engineered where it won’t all be on Kelly’s shoulders like at times at UNC.
With six unique guards in the backcourt, she’s set up for success and won’t have to do it all like in years past. Oregon fans saw this depth in Kelly’s unselfish play against Baylor.
Kelly had already been on a tear: stepbacks, yo-yo turnaround jumpers, 3-pointers from the top of the key. You name the shot, she’d essentially tried it or had the opportunity to. But this time, her decision-making to cut into the key, and find the streaking Elisa Mevius for a layup was what pushed the Ducks ahead of the Bears.
The ball left Kelly’s hands. Mevius caught it and watched it drop through the net. Matthew Night Arena erupted, and we were all glued to the scoreboard, legitimate proof that women’s basketball was back in Eugene.
“We were trying to get the ball in Deja’s hand,” head coach Kelly Graves said postgame. “She’s kinda made for these moments, and there was so much attention on Deja that there was an open driving lane.”
She didn’t hit the biggest shot of the day, not with the woman they call “Mevius the Menace” earning that nickname anew. But everybody knew the play was called for Kelly and the ball would be in her hands, another example of what she was brought to Eugene to do.
Everyone knows this is Kelly’s team. She’s a magnet that fans, skeptics and opponents alike can’t take their eyes off of.
Starting guard, Deja Kelly (25), poses at the end of the Oregon Ducks line up prior to tip off. The No. 25 ranked Oregon Ducks hosted the North Texas Mean Green at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene on Nov. 12, 2024. (Julia Massa/Emerald)
Lady LibertyxLady Ducks
The Oregon women’s basketball team looks to embody the New York Liberty’s championship energy this season
BY RUBY WOOL Sports Reporter
The University of Oregon women’s basketball team is continuing its season with the inspiration of former Ducks guiding its goals.
The 15-women roster believes they can win a championship, but 23 regular season games and tournament play stand between aspiration and an accolade — a National Championship trophy. This daunting reality doesn’t dismay the No. 25-ranked Ducks, who are coming off an impressive start to the season and their first program win against a ranked team since February 2023.
Watching the 76-74 win over the late No. 12 Baylor University Bears, was 2024 WNBA champion, Olympic gold medalist and Oregon alumni Sabrina Ionescu. From the bench, the home team looked across the arena to New
Ionescu, who sat court-side and held up a three as Ducks sank shots from outside the arc.
“I think it’s great for our fans, community and team to see someone of that caliber on our sidelines supporting us and believing in us,” Deja Kelly, guard and graduate transfer from the University of North Carolina, said.
“Sabrina said ‘Honestly, at the end of the day, it just comes down to what you’re trying to do for yourself and how you can better yourself,’” Kelly said in reference to her pre-portal conversation with Ionescu.
The Texas native, who recorded a near triple-double in her Matthew Knight Arena debut, is looking to join the NCAA record holder for triple-doubles at the professional level next season, but first, Kelly wants “to make the tournament and win a championship with this school.”
Head coach Kelly Graves looks to fulfill the same dream. He follows a similar prostyle offensive blueprint used by his friend and Liberty’s head coach, Sandy Brondello, which he says helped Ionescu transition smoothly to Madison Square Garden.
The Liberty created an efficient attack by running a system that emphasized ball movement while managing to limit turnovers. The team pushed the pace with the most fast break points in all of the WNBA. Kelly said she watched Ionescu and the Liberty effectively execute this offensive approach.
Ionescu isn’t the only WNBA champion Oregon players want to emulate this year. Former Duck and Ionescu’s fellow teammate (for the second time) Nyara Sabally was an equally integral member of the Liberty and helped take down the Minnesota Lynx to win New York its first-ever title.
“Nyara is a great example that coach focused on,” Alexis Whitfield, a transfer forward hailing from the University of California Santa Barbara, said. “Before the playoffs, Nyara wasn’t necessarily doing as much as she did, but when you look at her final few games, she was a high-impact player for them.”
Sabally, who suffered a back injury for half of the season, put up 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench during the deciding game of the WNBA Finals. The 6-foot--5 forward also
had a steal and layup in overtime to help extend the Liberty’s lead.
“I just think how they have different players who can step up on different nights; we have that ability, too,” Graves said. “So, as a coach, that’s going to be a lot of fun to see.”
“When it’s your time to be called on, you have to fit those shoes,” Whitfield said. “That’s exactly what Nyara did and what our team will continue to do.”
With the proper support, game plan and drive, this Oregon team is bound for New York City-style success.
“They got a championship; I would love to get that for us, too,” Graves said. “That would be the biggest similarity that I see.”
(LEFT) New York Liberty guard and University of Oregon alumnus Sabrina Ionescu holds up the Women’s National Basketball Association Championship trophy in Matthew Knight Arena during the Oregon vs. Baylor basketball game, Nov. 10, 2024. (Ben Green/Emerald)
Sabrina Ionescu celebrates after drawing a foul against Oregon State University at Matthew Knight Arena on Feb. 15, 2019.
(Ben Green/Emerald)
EVANS RELISHES HIS NEW ROLE
After the departure of key frontcourt pieces, Kwame Evans Jr. rose to the top as one of the primary returning players this season
BY JACK LAZARUS Sports Associate Editor
The largest storyline looming over the Oregon men’s basketball season is the replacement of key leaders such as center N’Faly Dante and guard Jermaine Couisnard.
The Ducks, for the first time in a while, have a big question mark regarding the team’s identity. Defensively, head coach Dana Altman’s patented zone remains, but on offense, the inside-out, post-reliant style won’t find much success without Dante.
This opened up the opportunity that a player as talented as Kwame Evans Jr. needed.
Evans, nearly seven feet tall, provides a much different profile for Oregon’s frontcourt due to his ability to stretch the floor. He can shoot, he can drive and he can work in the post, but Evans shines on defense.
“[Trying to be] defensive minded, trying to guard the best players, rebound, hit my
of that opportunity, as he finished second in the Pac-12 and 16th in the whole nation with his defensive box plus/minus of 5.0 — DBPM is a way to measure a player’s impact on the defensive end by estimating the difference between having the player on the court versus off.
Similarly, Evans posted a defensive rating of 100.7 — ninth in the Pac-12 — which estimates how many points he would allow per 100 possessions.
However it’s looked at, Evans is a tremendously effective defender, which is something he credits Dante with aiding him in.
“[Dante] endured anyone coming in the lane, just being there all the time to oppose the other team getting in the lane. Just being physical and pushing them out of the lane, so I definitely took lessons from that,” Evans said. Dante also passed on another role to Evans, and it’s one that the sophomore forward
“[The passing of the torch] came from Dante and them knowing I’ve been here before, while there’s a whole bunch of new guys and not a lot of returners, but just being the guy to help the new guys out learning the plays, teach them how things should be, so that’s really helpful,” Evans said.
So far this season, aside from his 23 point performance in the opener against UC Riverside, Evans has struggled to stay consistent.
The rough start came to a head in the Ducks’ most recent win, an overtime thriller against Portland University, where Evans totaled just 15 minutes after a subpar first half and failing to register significant playing time in the second and overtime.
It’s only been three games, and Evans can only go up from here. As he settles into his new role, the efficient, lockdown Evans from last season should return. After all, he is a former McDonald’s All-American —
The Ducks know what they need from Evans as a player and leader. He just has to put it together as the young season moves forward, which is a primary factor that led Oregon to its March Madness appearance
Kwame Evans Jr. (10), Olivier Nkamhoua (13), and Jackson Shelstad (3) prepare to fight for a rebound. The Oregon Ducks men’s basketball team took on the Michigan Wolverines on Dec. 2, 2023, in Eugene. (Molly McPherson/Emerald)
From Germany to New York to Oregon
How Elisa Mevius’ journey to Eugene will lift the Ducks
BY MAX KOEBEL Sports Reporter
The Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team came into the season looking to improve tremendously after finishing its previous season on a 14-game losing streak and last in the Pac-12. Thanks to many roster additions in the offseason, the Ducks are already on track for a much better season. After upsetting then No. 12 Baylor University 76-74 on November 10, Oregon has found itself in the Top 25. One of the significant additions to this team was junior guard Elisa Mevius, who scored the go-ahead layup with 22 seconds remaining against Baylor.
Mevius played on the German national Olympic team in 3x3 Women’s Basketball this past summer. Germany went 8-1, boasting wins against the USA, Canada and Spain on its way to a gold medal. Mevius scored 32 points with 11 assists, averaging 3.6 points per game. In the Gold medal game against Spain, Germany trailed early, but Mevius put up four points and an assist to lead the team to a 17-16 win.
Oregon was looking forward to bringing her in not just for her offense, but for her defense.
“Elisa Mevius, you know, after winning a gold medal, she’s really come in and just defensively is our most disruptive player,” head coach Kelly Graves said before the season. “She does a great job, she’s got great feet, great anticipation. I think she was first or second in the nation last year in steals, and now I see why. It wasn’t just because she was playing at maybe a different level. She can impact the game defensively.”
Mevius spent her first two years playing for the Siena College Saints in Albany, New York. She averaged 12.0 points, 6.8 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 4.5 steals per game in her sophomore season. She was selected as a first-team All-MAAC, and won Defensive Player of the Year in her league. As a freshman, Mevius won MAAC Rookie of the Year and was nominated for a Third-Team All-Conference selection.
“I think it goes back to our team pressure,” Mevius said regarding her defense. “I think it’s easier to be in the gap and get steals if there’s pressure on the ball. So I think I take a lot of pride in defending, but also the team backs me off.”
In the beginning of her run as a Duck, Mevius averaged 9.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.0 steals per game. She recorded 11 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals in Oregon’s win last Tuesday over the University of North Texas. The Ducks had a slow start but broke away in the second half for a 66-35 win. After the game, Mevius was asked if the struggles in the first half were connected to the quick turnaround after the Baylor game.
“Kelly (Graves) said we celebrate every win, but after we celebrated that, we were focusing on the next game,” Mevius said. “So I think our biggest opponent in the end is ourselves, and today we were a little bit in our heads in the first half, but then we picked it up, we played faster, and we got back to our own shape.”
The Ducks have another month of home games before their first road trip. The team is on pace to stay hot going into the heart of the season, and there’s no doubt that we’ll be hearing about Mevius a lot along the way.
Elisa Mevius, No. 8 for the Oregon Ducks, under the lights of Matthew Knight Arena pre-game. The University of Oregon Ducks Women’s Basketball team defeated the University of Nevada Wolf Pack 76- 58 in a home game at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene on Nov. 6, 2024. (Rowan Campbell/Emerald).
