Fans at Matthew Knight Arena began to groan.

Oregon sophomore guard Sabrina Ionescu was boxed out of two rebounds by her own teammates late in the third quarter of the Ducks’ first-round matchup against Seattle in the NCAA Tournament. Ionescu had nine rebounds, 10 assists and 14 points, just one board shy of a 10th career-triple double.

Less than 30 seconds into the fourth quarter, the rebound came, and an assist followed as Ionescu brought down an offensive rebound and tossed up a pass to Oti Gildon for the layup.

“I did hear them,” Ionescu said of the antsy Matthew Knight Arena crowd. “But coach also told me that I needed to get one more so he could take me out of the game.”

Ionescu, who finished with 19 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds, once again led the way for Oregon, this time in a first-round win over Seattle in the NCAA Tournament. The Ducks’ 88-45 blowout in front of their home crowd means they’ll play again on Sunday against No. 10 seed Minnesota, who knocked of No. 7 seed Green Bay earlier on Friday.

“We were trying to ice Sabrina and take her out of using the screens because she’s so incredible using the screen,” Seattle head coach Suzy Barcomb said. “We just watched a lot of film and every single time she got to use a screen and turn a corner, she was there.”

Ionescu’s triple-double is the 15th ever in tournament history and sixth since 2000 — former Oregon assistant coach Nicole Powell had back-to-back triple-doubles with Stanford in the first and second rounds in 2002.

Oregon played with a speed that Seattle couldn’t match. That speed caught the Redhawks off guard as Oregon started the game on a 10-0 run and led 48-16 at the end of the first half.

“I think the rim was about the size of a penny for us,” Barcomb said. “And it looked to be a huge peach basket for Oregon.”

Ionescu had 14 of Oregon’s 48 first-half points and also collected five assists and five rebounds.

“When I saw our team diving for loose balls early in that game, I could tell that this wasn’t just another game,” Graves said. “We wouldn’t just go through the motions.”

In the second half, several of Ionescu’s teammates joined her in double-digit scoring. By the end of the game, Ruthy Hebard, Gildon, Lexi Bando and Maite Cazorla were each in double figures. Hebard finished with nine rebounds to tack onto her 12 points while Gildon scored 16 points and collected six rebounds.

Oregon’s defense kept Alexis Montgomery to two points in the first half. She finished the game with 14.

“Defensively, I think we were locked in from the beginning,” Ionescu said. “We’ve been locked in since the Pac-12 Tournament. I think we’ve played some great defense. Tonight we did that as well.”

The Ducks will have a different challenge on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. PT when they play Minnesota, which beat Green Bay 89-77. For senior and Eugene native Lexi Bando, it will be the final game of her career in front of a Matthew Knight Arena crowd, which was made up of 7,040 attendees on Friday.

“This is the end you know,” Bando said. “My career at Oregon is starting to come to an end. To be able to play on our home court again is just a good feeling.”

Follow Shawn Medow on Twitter @ShawnMedow

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It was an ugly game.

From turnovers to missed shots to in-and-out free throws, Oregon’s first-round NIT game against Rider wasn’t pretty.

But after the team shot 33.3 percent in the first half, the Ducks guards stepped up and gave Oregon life. Sophomore Payton Pritchard went 7-of-12 for 23 points while freshman Victor Bailey Jr. went 8-of-11 for 23 points in the Ducks’ 99-86 win over the Broncs.

The Ducks’ guards shot well from behind the 3-point arc, extended a foot and eight inches for the NIT, and which was drawn onto the Matthew Knight Arena court in white.

Bailey Jr.’s 7-of-8 3-point shooting bested his prior career-high of three.

“He gives us a big spark off the bench,” forward Kenny Wooten said. “We just tried to give it to him every time.”

Pritchard went 2-of-5 from 3, while senior guard Elijah Brown managed 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. The three guards were responsible for 64 of the Ducks’ 99 points.

Pritchard added six rebounds and eight assists in the win but it was Bailey Jr’s career night that was the highlight of the guard play. To go along with his career-high seven made 3s, Bailey Jr.’s 23 points were a career high.

“VJ really likes to play when the ball’s going in,” head coach Dana Altman said. “He did a really nice job of shooting the ball and getting us some energy there.”

With the 3-point line nearly two feet back from the one normally played on in the season, the effect wasn’t evident.

“We just showed up to practice and there was a white line,” Bailey Jr. said. “Went into practice and then started shooting.”

The strong 3-point shooting drew out the Rider defenders, who rushed out to the perimeter to guard Bailey Jr. and Brown.

That opened up a lane for ball-handler Pritchard, who would drive and score. It also allowed him to open up spots outside when the Rider players noticed the sophomore rush to the rim.

“They don’t block a lot of shots and we did get to the rim a number of times,” Altman said. “As soon as we hit a few 3s and they pushed out on our 3-point shooters then it really opened up our lane.”

Pritchard and the Ducks drew quite a few free throws, going to the line for 27 shots. The Ducks had difficulty from the stripe, making only 19 of those 27 free throw attempts.

Without the one-and-one free throws in NIT, each foul in the bonus sent players to the line for two shots.

“Psychologically, it makes a difference because we’re a really good free throw shooting team but tonight we weren’t shooting them as good as we have been shooting them maybe it did hurt us,” Altman said.

In the first 28 games of the season, Pritchard had missed 11 free throws. Including his just 7-of-11 shooting from the line against Rider, Pritchard had missed 10 free throws in the past seven Oregon games.

Those missed points from the line didn’t haunt Oregon but it’s something for the Ducks to keep in mind as they progress in the NIT to play either Marquette or Harvard in the next round.

Follow Shawn Medow on Twitter @ShawnMedow

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Last season, Oregon women’s basketball sat down for the NCAA Selection Show, waiting to see who the team would draw, where they’d be seeded and where they’d play.

On Monday, the Ducks were confident they’d be hosting the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament at Matthew Knight Arena. The question was just who they’d play and what seeding they’d have.

As the ESPN announcement was made, the fans seated in the end of the arena rose to their feet to celebrate as the players, sitting just in front of them, leaped into the air.

“When you see your name up there, it’s always pretty magical,” head coach Kelly Graves said. “It’s a real testament to a group that worked really really hard this season and a two-seed is validation of that.”

The No. 2 seed Ducks will play No. 15 Seattle in their first round game on Friday at 4 p.m. as the madness comes to Eugene. If Oregon wins, it will play the winner of No. 7 Green Bay and No. 10 Minnesota in the second round.

“Having a two-seed is great and just being able to host it here in Eugene,” sophomore forward Ruthy Hebard said. “I know there’s going to be a lot of family and fans ready to cheer us on.”

The announcement. The reaction. pic.twitter.com/NcpaRjwCyO

— Shawn Medow (@ShawnMedow) March 12, 2018

Seattle went 17-14 this season and 9-5 in the Western Athletic Conference. Seattle played both Cal and Washington in nonconference games, losing to both teams.

In 2017, the Ducks went on an inspirational run to the Elite Eight as a No. 10 seed. This year, they have a different type of pressure.

“I don’t think that you can tell that it’s different by the way we practiced this week,” Graves said. “We have the luxury of knowing that we better come ready to play because we were in the same position last year.”

Rather than the underdog, Oregon is the favorite to get to the Elite Eight in its corner of the bracket where the Ducks could run into Notre Dame the No. 1 seed in the Spokane Regional.

The Ducks’ season has gone without much blemish.  Oregon has a 30-4 record with two losses to top seeded Mississippi State and Louisville during nonconference play.

Sophomore guard Sabrina Ionescu led Oregon all season. She set the NCAA record for triple-doubles and was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year.

Freshman Satou Sabally emerged for the Ducks this season and became the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year.

The Ducks season ended with a bang, as Oregon won its first Pac-12 regular season title since the 1999-2000 season. The Ducks then went on to win the Pac-12 Tournament for the first time ever after beating Stanford in the title game.

Stanford is seeded No. 4 and will play Gonzaga in the first round while UCLA was given a No. 3 seed and will play American. Oregon State is a No. 6 seed and will play Western Kentucky, while Arizona State and California are No. 7 seeds, and will play Nebraska in the first round of the Tournament.

The full bracket:

So fresh. So clean.

Complete #ncaaW Bracket https://t.co/VxMPipVBS1 pic.twitter.com/mCbl43bEdb

— NCAA Women's BKB (@ncaawbb) March 13, 2018

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At Sabrina Ionescu’s first basketball tryout in her hometown of Walnut Creek, California, she was just a middle school student trying to find a place to compete.

She didn’t own basketball shoes, but that didn’t stop her from outperforming everyone else in the gym. Ionescu ran past the other players and scored plenty of buckets, but the club’s head coach didn’t offer her a spot.

“I guess his daughter was on the team and Sabrina was just punking everybody in the gym,” Ionescu’s twin brother, Eddy, said. The coach told her that she didn’t fit with the team, that she wasn’t good enough and that basketball might not be the sport for her.

Ionescu (Yo-Ness-Coo), only in her sophomore year, has already left her mark in the Oregon women’s basketball history books. Now she is the Pac-12 Player of the Year, the NCAA record holder for career triple-doubles and a semifinalist for the 2018 Naismith College Player of the Year award. Basketball, in fact, might be the right sport for her.

“I always think about that story as if, ‘What is that guy thinking now?’” Eddy said.

Ionescu broke onto the national scene in her freshman year with Oregon when she helped lead the Ducks to the Elite Eight as a No. 10 seed. She was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and the espnW National Freshman of the Year.

Now, as one of the best players in college basketball, 2018 Final Four expectations rest on her shoulders.

Ionescu thrives on competition, but she hasn’t always been able to find it.  During her childhood she surpassed most of her peers, and a struggle to find on-court challenges led her to playing with her brother, other boys and older girls. Her ambition to best everyone she played elevated her to the level she’s at today.

Oregon Ducks guard Sabrina Ionescu (20) goes for a layup. The Oregon Ducks face the Colorado Buffaloes in the quarter finals of the Pac-12 Tournament at KeyArena in Seattle, Wash. on Friday, March 2, 2018. (Adam Eberhardt/Emerald)

When Ionescu was in middle school, she struggled to find valuable competition in her age group when she played with other girls. For Ionescu, playing with boys offered her more challenging experiences.

“They would come to me and say, ‘Please take your daughter, she will get hurt,’” Ionescu’s father, Dan, said. “She wouldn’t back down. She would keep playing.”

Ionescu’s middle school didn’t have a girls’ team, so she tried to form a team, but the level of competition with the girls didn’t live up to her standards.

As she always did, Ionescu played with the boys outside of school. But the school district wouldn’t let her play on the boys team, according to Dan.

“Back then it was definitely different than it is now and I think girls and boys are definitely more accepting now playing sports together,” Ionescu said. “It was kind of sad to be honest ‘cause we didn’t even have a girls team.”

Sometimes Ionescu managed to play on a boys club team when players didn’t show up for her brother’s AAU games.

“I’d just go over to her and point at her and say, ‘Go get your shoes out the car,’” Eddy said. “Me and Sabrina would combine for like 60 points out of the game. It was just ridiculous.”

The twins challenged each other as often as possible. After school, Ionescu would go home and head to the gym with Eddy.  

“Her brother would push her every single time,” Dan said. “It’s just like he never took it easy on her.”

The two played a lot of one-on-one growing up. According to Dan, Sabrina would win all of the games.

“She was always able to control herself in the big moments and get in his head. And he would rush things like guys do,” Dan said. “When you rush, you play out of control, so she would take advantage of every single mistake he made. She’s more disciplined and chooses her fights very well — chooses her moments very well.”

The games got physical, which made it hard for Dan to watch sometimes. But Ionescu held her own against Eddy.  

“If he was ahead, they would keep playing and playing until she wins,” Dan said. “She would never let go.”

Now, it’s a little different when they play. Eddy, who plays at City College of San Francisco, is 6-foot-5, towering over his 5-foot-11 sister.

“We always get in the gym whenever she gets back,” Eddy said. “We always go in and take some shots and she’ll ask me some stuff when we work out, show her some tips. We’re always still together.”

The one-on-one time and years of playing street ball with her brother and friends helped launch a high school career at Miramonte-Orinda High School. By her senior year she became the top guard and the No. 4 recruit in the nation, according to ESPN.  

Her young, competitive spirit is still evident at Oregon, where she always wants to be involved.

In the 2018 Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinal against Colorado, Ionescu had 10 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists — just two boards shy of her 10th career triple-double. In the fourth quarter, she sat on the bench as the Ducks held a 77-33 lead.

“I don’t even know if she probably even knew where she stood on those kind of things,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said.

Ionescu’s ambitious nature makes her crave playing. She loves the big moments and never shies away when pressure mounts.

“I don’t know if she likes to win as much as she hates losing,” Dan said. “She doesn’t like to fail. When you fail you feel depressed. She’s very hard on herself. When she loses a game or something, we don’t talk for days.”

She may not talk to her dad after losses but she celebrates the wins with him, including the Pac-12 Tournament in Seattle when he rushed the court from the stands to celebrate with his daughter, embracing her in a hug.

During that game, Ionescu posted 36 points in Oregon’s 77-57 win over Stanford, giving the Ducks their first ever Pac-12 Tournament title.

“I can always tell when she’s really really focused,” senior Lexi Bando said. “And she’s capable of doing that every night and tonight is just the night that she decided to go off for almost 40 points.”

Her dad drove up to Seattle for the tournament, which isn’t out of the ordinary. He drives up from Walnut Creek to most of her home games — roughly an eight-hour journey.

Eddy said that he and Ionescu don’t just talk about basketball; they like to keep each other informed on their lives outside of the sport.

When Eddy’s games are streamed online, Ionescu tunes in to give her brother pointers. Eddy does the same.

“Just to keep my head up if I’m not shooting the ball well or something like that,” Ionescu said. “He’s usually just really supportive. He never really tells me too much. I think he understands I’m usually in my own head. He’s just there to talk and vent to.”

When they were kids, the twins weren’t focused on making each other better players. They only wanted to beat each other — and it’s what drove Ionescu to the skill level she’s at.

“We’re always going to be best friends,” Eddy said.

Pac-12 player of the year and tournament MVP @sabrina_i20 cuts the net. pic.twitter.com/gl0XXgww9J

— Shawn Medow (@ShawnMedow) March 5, 2018

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On Saturday of the Oregon Invitational, No. 6 Oregon softball played as the home team in both games of a doubleheader evening against Weber State and Montana. The Ducks (21-4) defeated both teams behind dominant pitching that totaled 24 strikeouts over 12 innings.

Game 1: Oregon 10, Weber State 2

The bats came out early and the pitching stayed consistent for Oregon in its first game of a doubleheader on Saturday as the Ducks beat Weber State (11-13) 10-2 in a 4.5 inning run-rule win.

Miranda Elish, who came into Saturday boasting a 0.14 ERA, threw all five innings for the Ducks, striking out 12, walking two and allowing two hits. The Ducks bats backed her up with all 10 runs coming in the first two innings of the game.

Elish struck out each batter she faced in the third, two of three in the second and three of the four batters she faced in the final inning.

“She tried to overthrow there in the middle innings and kind of got flustered,” Oregon head coach Mike White said. “She wants it so bad that she gets ahead of herself. She composed herself and ended up throwing a good game.”

Oregon opened up the scoring in the first with a Gwen Svekis RBI single and a Mary Iakopo two-RBI double.

In the second, with two on, senior Jenna Lilley delivered a three-run home run to right field for her third home run of the season. Lilley hit just one home run all last season.

“She’s very composed, obviously she’s a terror in the infield at defense she just snags anything that’s down there,” White said.

Two batters later after Lilley, sophomore Shannon Rhodes hit a two-run home run to left field.

The Ducks had to quickly shift focus for their game against Montana just 30 minutes after the end of their win over the Wildcats.

Game 2: Oregon 6, Montana 0

If the pitching in the first game seemed solid, the second game was near perfect. In fact, it was one error short of being a perfect game.

Oregon pitcher Megan Kleist threw a no-hitter and faced the minimum 21 batters in a 6-0, seven-inning win over Montana (7-16). Like Elish in the first game, Kleist tossed 12 strikeouts for the Ducks while only allowing one base runner, which came on a Lilley error.

That error was amended as Iakopo, playing catcher, picked off Montana’s Kylie Hayton as she tried to steal second.

“Throwing people out with a canon,” Kleist said. “Super proud of where she’s going and I’m excited to see where she goes the next four years.”

Kleist has thrown two no-hitters in a row, the other being in Oregon’s 2-1 loss at Florida State.

“50-50 on them,” White said. “She pitched very well. A couple of hard-hit balls that were snagged and a tough error, but other than that, Megan pitched very well.”

Unlike the first game of the day for Oregon, it took some time for the Ducks to get the scoring going.

Oregon erupted for three runs in the fourth inning followed by a two-run fifth.

“It gives you kind of a little bit of a cushion to fool around with some different pitches in some different locations that you normally wouldn’t,” Kleist said. “It’s definitely good to have that run support.”

Oregon has two games left in the Oregon Invitational on Sunday against Montana at 12 and Bryant at 2:30.

Follow Shawn Medow on Twitter @ShawnMedow

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Oregon women’s tennis freshman Paiton Wagner grew up a Washington fan.

“Getting the win today was pretty sweet,” she said. “I’m a very competitive person. I even woke up on Monday morning just like, ‘This is the week, we’ve got this.’”

She and the team did have it, beating No. 33 Washington 5-2 in the Ducks’ Pac-12 opener on Friday. It’s the third straight season the Ducks (10-3) have opened Pac-12 play against the Washington schools, and it’s now the third straight year they’ve defeated the Huskies.

“They’re a tough team, very well coached and to come out today with a victory is wonderful confidence for our team,” Oregon coach Alison Silverio said. “For our girls, we’ve been talking about all season, preparing all season for these moments and it was exciting for us to be tough in the tough situations and pull through.”

The No. 21 Oregon Ducks won the doubles point. Alyssa Tobita and Rifanty Kahfiana as well as Nia Rose and Wagner won their matches 6-1 and 6-4, respectively.

Sangwan and Eshet didn’t finish their match, in which they trailed 4-5.

Rose and Wagner had a 5-2 lead in their match, but strong push back and a break from Stacey Fung and Alexis Prokopuik gave Washington a chance. But, thanks to solid play at the net from Rose, Oregon won the match and clinched the doubles point.

The Ducks went on to win four of the singles matches, dropping two that ended in first-to-10 tiebreak third sets.

Wagner won her singles match against Katarina Kopcalic 7-5, 6-3, and in both sets she trailed Kopcalic 0-3 to start each of her sets.

“The girl came out strong,” Wagner said. “I just tried to stay calm. In the second set, I knew I’d lost the first three games but I knew that she had a breaking point and that’s what we’ve been working a lot on.”

Fellow freshman Julia Lilien played a long match against Washington senior Miki Kobayashi. Lilien dropped the first set 4-6 but ran away with the second set 6-1 before taking the third 6-4.

For Oregon senior Tobita, a match against the No. 14 singles player Fung loomed. After winning the first set 6-4, Tobita dropped the second 4-6. The match went to a 10-point tiebreak in the third set as Oregon had clinched the win. Tobita lost the tiebreak 7-10.

“Didn’t go her way today but she’s playing the right way and this match is going to show up later in the season and she’s going to be on the winning side,” Silverio said.

The match was played on the outdoor courts due to Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rules that state when the temperature is above 50 degrees for a two-hour period during the match and there is no rain, the match is played outside.

“It’s slower outside. It usually can take a while to adjust,” Wagner said. “I was just so proud of the way we let our team adjust and didn’t let that get in our heads and we came out strong and we just shut them down today.”

The Ducks will have a quick turnaround to Sunday’s match against Washington State, which is expected to once again be played outside.

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SEATTLE — Eugene native Lexi Bando committed to play for head coach Kelly Graves when he was still in charge of Gonzaga in Spokane, Washington.

Then, a job opened up in Eugene and Graves, as well as Bando, made the switch.

“I just believed in his vision,” Bando said. “He built a dynasty at Gonzaga. “They won conference championship after conference championship. Taking it to the Pac-12, he wanted a challenge and I believed in him and now we’re here.”

Four years later, Bando, Graves and the No. 6 Oregon women’s basketball team stood atop the stage in the center of the court at KeyArena in Seattle, hoisting the Pac-12 Tournament trophy for the first time in the program’s history. It was a long journey, but it’s one that paid off.

“It’s bittersweet right now,” Bando said. “Coming in my freshman year I didn’t even think this was possible and to be here now is the most incredible feeling.”

What a moment for Eugene native @lexibando10. pic.twitter.com/AV7ppQPHKk

— Shawn Medow (@ShawnMedow) March 5, 2018

Bando, who missed seven games during the middle of Pac-12 play, posted 12-of-18 shooting in the Pac-12 Tournament, 10 of which were from beyond the arc.

“Threes, 3s and more 3s,” Colorado head coach JR Payne said after Oregon’s 84-47 win over the Buffs in the quarterfinals. “The thing I love about Lexi is not just her ability to shoot the ball, but I love that she loves the big shot.

“In most of her games that have come down to the wire over the last couple years, she’s made big shot when’s it mattered.”

That was the case when Oregon played UCLA. Bando hit four shots, three of them from 3-point range, which included two 3s inside the final six minutes of the game.

“It seems like every time she makes a three it almost counts four or five, because it seems to give us a lift,” Graves said. “She hit a couple in the second half that were huge too.”

Oregon’s consistency from 3-point range was evident all weekend long as the Ducks shot above 45 percent in every game, while their opponents failed to reach 30 percent accuracy from deep.

While Bando may have only scored five points on 2-of-6 shooting, 1-of-4 from 3, her presence can be enough to keep opponents quiet and open up space for her teammates. In that final, sophomore guard Sabrina Ionescu was that player who she opened play up for as the Pac-12 player of the year to score 36 points.

This season, the Ducks went undefeated in conference play when Bando plays. While she was out, she still provided inspiration from the bench, and when she got back, she picked up where she left off, continuing to average around 10 points per game.

“I told Bando and Justine, ‘This one’s for you guys,’” freshman forward Satou Sabally said. “They went through the rough times and they just kept going. It’s an honor to help them and keep going and just succeeding.”

Bando followed Graves because of his dynasty in Spokane, and now one seems to be forming in Eugene.

“I think they’re building one,” Bando said. “When I leave they’re still going to continue to be even more successful.”

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SEATTLE — Associate sports editor Shawn Medow and reporter Aaron Alter discuss Oregon women’s basketball’s Pac-12 Tournament victory this weekend in Seattle. The Ducks defeated Stanford on Sunday 77-57 to win the tournament after they beat Colorado on Friday and UCLA on Saturday. Shawn and Aaron talk about each game and what it means for the Ducks, who are in line to host the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament in two week’s time.

This podcast was produced by Alec Cowan.

Follow Shawn Medow on Twitter @ShawnMedow

The post Podcast: Oregon women’s basketball wins Pac-12 Tournament appeared first on Emerald Media.

SEATTLE — With under two minutes to play in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game, the section directly behind the Oregon bench stood up and began to chant “MVP” as Pac-12 player of the year and sophomore guard Sabrina Ionescu dribbled the ball up the court.

“I saw a little twinkle in her eye coming off the bus today and at shootaround and at pre-game meal,” head coach Kelly Graves said. “She had a different look about her. I didn’t know what that was going to translate into, but now I know the look”

The Oregon Ducks celebrate their win on the podium. The Oregon Ducks face the Stanford Cardinal in the final of the Pac-12 Tournament at KeyArena in Seattle, Wash. on Sunday, March 4, 2018. (Adam Eberhardt/Emerald)

Ionescu, the tournament’s MVP, scored 36 points — a Pac-12 Tournament championship game record — in Oregon’s 77-57 win over the Stanford Cardinal, giving the Ducks their first ever Pac-12 Tournament championship in the program’s first championship game appearance.

“Couldn’t be more proud,” Graves said. “This has been a season of firsts for the Ducks, and this is the first time we’ve ever won a Pac-12 Tournament Championship. It feels really neat.”

Stanford took the lead early, but Oregon turned it around quickly with a 12-point first quarter from Ionescu to give the Ducks an 18-17 lead. Oregon’s defense kept Stanford scoreless for the final five minutes, 14 seconds of the quarter.

“All three games in the tournament where I thought defensively we were terrific,” Graves said. “The energy was great.”

Ionescu scored five points in the beginning of the second quarter to get to 17 points, the same number of points the Cardinal had as a team. From there, as Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said, the game became “the Ionescu show.”

The Ducks pulled away from the Cardinal in the second half with Ionescu leading the way.

“I think it was just our mindset coming in to be honest,” Ionescu said. “I think we had some unfinished business, and our coaches did a great job on the scouting. We adjusted from what we did last game, and I was just ready to come out.”

Behind Ionescu’s 4-of-10 3-point shooting, four other Ducks made 3s, including Satou Sbally’s 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc. Oregon shot 45.8 percent from 3-point range while the Cardinal shot 28.6 percent.

Part of that successful deep shooting from Oregon is because of senior guard Lexi Bando.

Oregon Ducks head coach Kelly Graves cuts down the net after the game. The Oregon Ducks face the Stanford Cardinal in the final of the Pac-12 Tournament at KeyArena in Seattle, Wash. on Sunday, March 4, 2018. (Adam Eberhardt/Emerald)

“It’s bittersweet right now,” Bando said. “Coming in my freshman year I didn’t even think this was possible and to be here now is the most incredible feeling.”

Sabally was questionable to play after leaving the semifinal against UCLA with an injury, but she played and finished with 12 points and three rebounds in 26 minutes.

“In the warm up I felt like, ‘OK, just let the pain out.’ The crowd was helping too. I just didn’t think about it,” Sabally said. “I knew that I wanted to play in the final. As soon as the buzzer went off, I knew, ‘OK I need to get everything together.’”

For Graves, the net-cutting ceremony brought some emotion out, even though he’s been there before with his previous teams. This time, it was different.

“For me to sit back there and watch them go up one by one, that’s priceless,” Graves said. “That’s why I do what I do and I truly love each and every one of them. I’m so happy for them.”

Rapid Reaction

Rapid reaction: @ShawnMedow and @aaronalter95 discuss Oregon women’s basketball’s Pac-12 Tournament championship. #Pac12WBB pic.twitter.com/YOy6Bz8s3f

— Emerald Sports (@ODEsports) March 5, 2018

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