- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,151,546
- Reaction score
- 59
You must be registered for see images attach
AUSTIN, Texas -- Sunday’s blowout was not how the Oregon Ducks saw their NCAA Tournament run ending.
While they knew defeating top-seeded Texas on its home floor would be a challenge, the Ducks expected their determination and resolve, evident all season, to create an upset opportunity.
Instead, the eight-seeded Ducks fell 100-58 at Moody Center, wilting beneath the heat generated by Texas’ defense and the 8,981 energized fans, mostly wearing burnt orange.
Simply put, the Ducks didn’t compete—a fact sophomore Ehis Etute said stung more than the margin of defeat.
“It’s not how much we lost by, it’s honestly how we lost,” Etute said. “Because I feel like we should have been fighting until the very end and giving our all, no matter what the score looked like. Today, that’s just not what it looked like from our team. That’s not the feeling I got, myself included.”
The Ducks were installed as 27.5-point underdogs, even after defeating ninth-seeded Virginia Tech 70-60 in the first round.
Oregon, which went 8-10 in the Big Ten—a conference that sent 12 teams to the NCAA tournament—believed it had been tested enough to make Sunday’s game at least interesting.
They did so for the first six minutes of the first quarter when the score stood at 15-15. After that, the game began to unravel for Oregon.
By the second quarter, it became clear the Ducks didn’t match up with the Longhorns, led by 6-foot-1 Madison Booker, who scored 40 points, both a career high and program tournament record.
No other player on the court defined the gulf between these two programs. Booker went 14 of 21 from the field, scoring from all over the court, while not one Oregon player proved capable of slowing her down.
She was too big for Oregon’s guards and too agile and skilled for their forwards.
“We just don’t have anybody physically that can match up with her,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said.
You must be registered for see images attach
Oregon guard Katie Fiso (2) drives against Texas during the first half in the second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 22, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) APAP
Etute was Oregon’s best option to defend Booker, but doing so would mean not having someone adequate on the Longhorns’ centers.
“Just hats off to her,” Graves said. “I mean, she’s a first-team All-American for a reason. And she played like it tonight.”
Booker’s dominance allowed teammates to feast. The rest of the team shot 23 of 45 (51.1%) and combined for just eight turnovers. Oregon committed 15 turnovers, leading to 23 Texas points.
Oregon’s only shot to stay close was to find an offensive rhythm to both score points and keep the Longhorns from capitalizing on their misses.
That’s exactly where the Ducks faltered, allowing Texas to turn an 11-point halftime lead into a commanding 73-42 blowout through three quarters.
Oregon went 2 of 12 (16.7%) from the field, while the Longhorns shot 10 of 17 (58.8%) with Booker scoring 13 points.
The visual was jarring. The Ducks did not resemble a Power 4 program, let alone a tournament team.
According to Etute, poor shooting in the third quarter led some Ducks to lose their defensive focus. They didn’t deliver the same level of composure displayed in the past.
That occurred despite Etute, Katie Fiso and Ari Long insisting that the team remained upbeat and confident at halftime.
“We were pumped coming out,” Etute said. “We just went into a slump and we never came out.”
Etute credited the Longhorns’ defense for speeding up the Ducks and disrupting their offensive flow. The Longhorns’ aggressiveness, she said, caught the Ducks off guard.
Fiso, who looked sharp while scoring 11 points in the first half, could only get off two shots in the third quarter against Texas’ revved-up defense. She finished with 16 points.
“They were really long, really hard to get by,” she said.
With Fiso not scoring and the Ducks’ defense getting shredded, Texas’ lead swelled beyond Oregon’s reach.
“When it gets to a point, it kind of gets a little tough to kind of keep working back into it,” Long said.
Sunday’s poor performance didn’t reshape Graves’ view of his team. He pointed to the team’s 23 wins, the two victories in the Big Ten Tournament, and Friday’s win over the Hokies.
“We just didn’t have what they had today,” Graves said. “And that part’s disappointing, but I’m going to remember the great things.”
His players shared his view.
“I’m disappointed in what we did tonight, but overall, I’m just proud of the season,” Etute said.
Latest Ducks news
- Overwhelmed Oregon falls hard to Texas and Madison Booker, ending NCAA run
- Oregon’s Katie Fiso is just getting started: Advice from Kobe Bryant, overcoming tragedy fuels Ducks star
- Women’s March Madness 2026 schedule today (3/22): Round 2 NCAA tournament free live streams
Read the original article on oregonlive.com. Add oregonlive.com as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Continue reading...
