Scouting report: No. 14 Arizona Wildcats at Oregon Ducks

Probable starters

ARIZONA

G Shaina Pellington (5-8 senior)

G/F Jade Loville (5-11 senior)

F Esmery Martinez (6-2 senior)

F Lauren Fields (5-9 senior)

F Cate Reese (6-2 senior)

OREGON

G Endyia Rogers (5-7 senior)

G Te-Hina Paopao (5-9 junior)

G Taya Hanson (5-11 senior)

C Phillipina Kyei (6-8 sophomore)

G Chance Gray (5-9 freshman)

History of matchup

Arizona is 32-45 against Oregon. UA coach Adia Barnes has won four out of the last five against the Ducks.

Last month it was Madi Conner putting up 16 points in the second half — 11 of them coming in a 14-3 run in the third quarter — to lead Arizona to a 79-71 win. Four other Wildcats scored in double figures, with Shaina Pellington’s stat line also standing out: 14 points, six rebounds, six assists, one block and one steal.

The last time these two teams played in Eugene was the Ducks’ come-from-behind 68-66 win in overtime. Oregon overcame a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter to force OT.

The game was full of controversy. Barnes and Oregon coach Kelly Graves were jawing back and forth. In addition, the officials missed a key moment on Oregon’s game-winning basket. After a replay review, it was clear that Endyia Rogers was standing out of bounds along the baseline. She stepped back on the court to catch a deflected ball, then delivered the winning shot. The rules state that when a player goes voluntarily out of bounds and is then the first one to touch the ball upon returning, the play should be blown dead and the opposing team awarded the ball.

Key players

OREGON — Te-Hina Paopao

Paopao is coming off a season-high performance, scoring 22 points in a loss to Washington. She also knocked down a career-high six 3-pointers and dished four assists. The Ducks are on a seven- game losing skid, and Paopao averaged just 4.3 points in the previous six games, including a scoreless outing against Washington State last weekend. She is a motor for this team, and the Ducks rely on her to score, pick steals and dish assists. For Oregon to have any chance to sweep this weekend and get back into the NCAA Tournament discussion, she needs to produce. She is averaging 11.2 points and 3.1 assists per game and has 40 steals so far.

ARIZONA — Jade Loville

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Loville is due for a big game. Since the sweep in Los Angeles, Loville has had four rough games, scoring only 10 total points. A month ago, Loville scored 13 points and picked a steal against the Ducks. The fifth-year senior is still hitting 41% from the field and the same from the 3-point line while averaging 10.7 points per game. She has contributed in other ways during her scoring slump, including a three-rebound, one-steal effort vs. Utah.

She said it

“It’s going to come down to our transition defense and our pick-and-roll defense. We did a really good job at our place the first time with just defending the pick-and-roll, but I think we had a couple of letdowns with transition. We want to eliminate easy baskets (and put) a lot of ball pressure on their guards. They have three top scoring guards in their starting lineup that we want to really manage. Endiya Rogers is a great playmaker for them. She’s led them. and we want to try to contain her. They’ve had one recent injury to Grace VanSlooten, (who was) playing well for them as a freshman inside. Those are two components on their offense, but they have an all-around good team.”

— UA assistant coach Erin Grant, who scouted the Ducks

Sidelines

Celebrating Black History Month every day: February is Black History Month, and the Wildcats have been wearing black warmup T-shirts with “Lifting as we climb” on them. This is one of Loville’s favorite months.

“That’s the foundation of who I am — human before I’m an athlete; I’m a human before I’m a student,” Loville said. “Just to be able to celebrate small Black-owned businesses or Black creators. I think our world doesn’t move forward without Black creators. There’s so much creativity within the Black culture. To have a month to really represent that and highlight that — obviously, it’s every month that we are proud to be who we are, but it was nice to have a shirt to wear before games. That’s who I am before I am anything else, so it makes me very proud.

Two Black creators — and friends — that Loville supports in the fashion business are Soul from “I am” and Peace.

No longer freshmen: When February rolls around, the freshmen have gotten a real taste of conference play, understand the system they play in and the pace of the game at the collegiate level. It just takes patience and trusting the process to get to this point.

“The teams that are relying on freshmen have been up and down throughout the season,” said former UA coach Joan Bonvicini, now an analyst for Pac-12 Networks. “When you look at the teams that have struggled in the conference — look at Oregon and Oregon State. If Grace VanSlooten ... I think she’s Freshman of the Year. But if she has a bad game, they lose.

“Look at Stanford with Lauren Betts — the No. 1 freshman coming in, in the country — she hardly played. After playing at Arizona and ASU, that kid now … oh my god, it’s almost not fair to have her on the same team as Cameron Brink. It’s ridiculous.

“But she doesn’t feel the pressure that those other teams do that are playing these top kids. If Lauren Betts has a bad game, that’s not necessarily going to have Stanford lose because they have other players. That’s the difference.

“All the freshman in the Pac-12, they’re all going to be better ... down the stretch, because they’ve played enough now. Paris (Clark), Kailyn (Gilbert) and Maya (Nnaji) are going to play more quality minutes (for Arizona) the rest of the season.”

Fun facts

Arizona: UA is 5-1 over the last six games and is averaging 3.8 blocks per game during that stretch. Nnaji (six), Lauren Fields (four) and Pellington (three) account for 13 of UA’s 23 blocks.

Oregon: Chance Gray (11.0) and VanSlooten (14.3) are the latest Oregon freshmen duo to average 10-plus points per game. The last pair to do it was Sabrina Ionescu (14.6) and Ruthy Hebard (14.9) in the 2009-10 season.

Numbers game

4-1-1 – Rogers is the first Duck since at least 1999 to have at least 400 points, 100 rebounds and 100 assists in a single season. Her numbers in each category have bested last season’s: 432 points (330 last year); 108 rebounds (97) and 106 assists (71).

2 – For a second consecutive season, Arizona’s total attendance surpassed 115,000 – more than 7,500 per game each year.

21 – The Wildcats have beaten 21 Top 25 teams in the Barnes coaching era. They have also defeated four teams ranked in the top five: Utah (2023), Stanford (2020), Texas A&M (2021 Sweet Sixteen) and UConn (2021 Final Four).