After surviving a scare on the road Thursday against Penn State, the Oregon women’s basketball team is hoping to refocus ahead of one of its biggest tests of the season so far Sunday morning at No. 9 Ohio State.
The Ducks (12-4, 3-2 Big Ten) are winners of each of their last three conference games against Northwestern. Wisconsin and Penn State after falling to No. 4 USC and Illinois to begin conference play in December.
Against an undefeated Buckeyes (15-0, 4-0 Big Ten) squad, Oregon is looking for a more consistent and focused approach than the one that nearly saw it blow a 17-point lead against the Nittany Lions earlier this week in State College, Pennsylvania.
“We’ve got to do a heck of a lot better against pressure, because we’re going to see that for 40 minutes and it’s elite pressure,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said. “(Penn State), they do it, but they don’t do it with the same kind of tenacity that Ohio State does. Ohio State is going to watch this film and go, ‘Hey, they really struggled against pressure.’ We’re going to have to figure that out.”
The Ducks struggled in the early going of the fourth quarter Thursday, allowing the Nittany Lions to go on a 10-0 run before Deja Kelly hit the go-ahead shot with seconds remaining to preserve the win. Phillipina Kyei, who has been working her way back slowly after an injury derailed her offseason conditioning, has started to put the pieces together over consistent minutes.
The senior center scored 12 points and had eight rebounds Thursday, including some clutch offensive rebounds and points down the stretch.
“She’s showing it more consistently and she’s been showing it in practice,” Graves said of Kyei. “She’s still not at 100% … if she plays like she did tonight then we are going to be in good shape. She makes us different and she makes us better.”
The Ducks will also face one of their former players in Buckeyes junior guard Chance Gray, who transferred to OSU after two seasons at Oregon from 2022-24.
The Cincinnati, Ohio, native averaged 12 points per game while shooting 34.4% from the floor and 33.4% from 3-point range over two years at UO and has upped her game tremendously for the top-10 Buckeyes as an outside scoring threat.
The junior is averaging 16 points per game while shooting 41.2% from distance and 47.7% from the field.
How to watch Oregon women’s basketball vs. Ohio State
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TV channel: None
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Streaming:
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Radio: KUGN (590 AM, 98.1 FM), KPAM (860 AM, Portland), KYKN (1430 AM, Salem)
Oregon women’s basketball vs. Ohio State game time
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Date: Sunday, Jan. 12
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Start time: 10 a.m. PT
Oregon women’s basketball vs. Ohio State predictions, picks, odds
The ESPN Analytics matchup predictor gives Oregon a 11% chance to beat Ohio State.
Oregon women’s basketball 2024-25 schedule
Next five games
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @AlecDietz.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: How to watch Oregon women’s basketball vs. Ohio State
