EUGENE, Ore. -- Last season, the UC Davis women's basketball team found themselves ahead of nationally ranked Oregon after three periods, only to have the Ducks rally in the fourth quarter en route to a six-point win.
Wednesday night in Eugene, Ore., the Aggies found themselves in the same spot; However, this time, there would be no such comeback.
Leading by seven with the fourth quarter ahead of them, the Aggies held the No. 18/16 Ducks to just 21 percent shooting from the floor over the final 10 minutes -- including an 0-for-8 drought over the final 2:56 -- and leveraged an 11-0 third-quarter run into a lead they would not relinquish to upset nationally ranked Oregon, 64-57, on the road at Matthew Knight Arena.
"The word I'm thinking about right now is just 'pride,' " Head Coach
Jennifer Gross said after the game. "We put games like this on our schedule to give our players the opportunity to compete against some of the top teams in the country and they were excited to do that. As soon as we got here, I could tell our team was really ready for the game.
"I'm just really proud of our group. It was a total team effort. Everything started on the defensive end with our rebounding and I thought we did a great job of executing our defensive game plan."
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It was the first win over a nationally ranked opponent in 23 tries in UC Davis' Division I history and the 10th over a "Power Five" school in that same span -- eight of those coming against Pac-12 Conference opponents. The Aggies improved to 4-2 overall on the year with their third consecutive win.
Meanwhile, UC Davis handed the Ducks their third-straight defeat and their first non-conference home loss in nearly seven years -- a run of 44 consecutive wins dating back to a 68-59 loss to Fresno State on Dec. 21, 2014 -- while holding Oregon to a season-low shooting percentage (.344).
"Coming into this game we knew that we weren't going to be afraid," Gross said. "It was just a matter of could we make enough shots and can we shut them down. We've been in this situation where we've been so close and we've talked about beating a top-25 team and we haven't been able to close it out. Tonight, looking in their eyes, we talked about staying loose and just finishing it. This was a team that was ready to do that."
Senior forward and reigning Big West Conference Player of the Year
Cierra Hall led a balanced scoring effort, finishing with 13 points, five rebounds, and three assists, in the victory, pacing a group of four UC Davis players in double figures and seven in the scoring column overall. The performance put the Cypress, Calif., native just 20 points shy of 1,000 for her career.
"I think I'm in disbelief," Hall said following the victory. "Last year we came up here with no fans, a completely different environment, and we thought we could do it, but we ended up losing. This year, to come up with all their fans here, everybody screaming against you. It's a crazy environment. It feels like tournament time.
"I don't even want to say 'upset' because I feel like we deserve to be on this floor playing with them. I have that much confidence in my team. This win feels incredible. I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy to be celebrating with my teammates."
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Senior
Sage Stobbart finished with 11 points and eight rebounds, including a trio of three-pointers, while sophomore
Evanne Turner added 11 points of her own to go with five rebounds and three assists. Junior
Lena Svanholm chipped in 10 points and six rebounds of 4-of-9 from the floor, while senior
Kayla Konrad led all Aggies with nine rebounds and four assists to go with five points.
The Aggies led 17-14 after one following a deep triple by
Marley Langi with :40 remaining in the period for the first quarter advantage, and led by as many as five in the second quarter before Oregon rallied for a one-point halftime lead, 35-34, on a basket inside by Phillipina Kyei with less than a minute remaining.
Undaunted, UC Davis came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders to start the third, trading baskets to start the third before a pair of free throws by Svanholm sparked the Aggies' decisive run, putting UC Davis up a point, 42-41. Turner drove the lane and laid it in on her team's next possession, followed by baskets from Konrad and Svanholm for the seven-point advantage.
"For our team to be its very best, we need to have some sparks off the bench that can come in, hit some shots, grab some rebounds, and we have players that are capable of doing that," Gross said. "It was great to see some of them shine tonight.Â
"Marley hit some big buckets for us, gave us a huge boost off the bench. I thought Lena was spectacular on the offensive glass, grabbing a couple of really key rebounds and then hitting that turnaround jumper late to give us a little bit of breathing room."
Stobbart then drained her second three-pointer of the period, pushing the Aggies' lead to 10 at 51-41 with 4:47 to play in the period. Oregon scored five of the final seven points in the period to close back to within single digits, and made it a four-point game on a three-pointer by Sydney Parrish to start the fourth, but that would be as close as the Ducks would get.
Stobbart answered with a personal 5-0 run, pushing the lead back to nine with 6:48 to go, before the defense clamped down, limiting Oregon to just three field goals the rest of the way en route to the victory.
UC Davis shot just under 39 percent from the floor for the game and were even on the boards with 39 rebounds apiece against a long Oregon squad, which featured the likes of 6-foot-8 Kyei and 6-foot-7 Sedona Prince. Prince and Ahlise Hurst shared team-high honors with 11 points each.
"We knew that we were going to be undersized and we knew that we were going to have to get it done on the boards," Hall said. "They're 6-foot-7, 6-foot-8, they start all that height and they're going to be in there on the offensive boards, it's really going to be us battling. It's heart. It's determination. We were battle-ready today."
The Aggies return to the floor on Saturday (Dec. 4) at 4 p.m., taking on their second-straight Pac-12 opponent in Washington State at the University Credit Union Center. It is the second half of a doubleheader with the UC Davis men's team, which hosts UC Merced at 2 p.m.
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ABOUT UC DAVIS
Centrally located between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, over 700 student-athletes across 25 teams enjoy an unrivaled undergraduate experience at the fifth-ranked public school in the country.Â
Ranked annually in the nation's top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility, UC Davis and its innovative Aggie EVO System helps student-athletes develop passions, connect with a comprehensive network of alums and industry leaders, gain real-world experience, and thrive as a young professional following a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school.Â
