Only one college basketball team had ever beaten the U.S. women's national team. That is, until now.
The Oregon Ducks defeated Team USA 93-86 at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday in an exhibition game. With the win, they become just the second program in history to top the women's national team. Tennessee did it back on Nov. 7, 1999, almost 20 years to the day.
Oregon senior guard Sabrina Ionescu led all scorers with 30 points on 10-of-20 shooting. She added seven assists and four rebounds in 36 minutes of action. And it was Ionescu who had the highlight of the night with this pull-up 3-pointer from deep.
ICYMI: @sabrina_i20 is really good at basketball#ncaaW | @OregonWBB pic.twitter.com/ueFnRt2jXz
— NCAA Women’s Basketball (@ncaawbb) November 10, 2019
Senior Ruthy Hebard had a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds and junior Satou Sabally added 25 points for the Ducks. Oregon trailed by as much as 11 points in the first half and four points at halftime before outscoring Team USA 55-44 in the second half.
For Team USA, WNBA star Nneka Ogwumike — former Stanford Cardinal — finished with a double-double, recording a team-high 19 points and 14 rebounds.
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The women's national team featured household names like Diana Taurasi (17 points, five assists), Sue Bird (eight points, eight assists) and Skylar Diggins-Smith (one rebound, one assist).
But the Ducks gave them all they could handle, and proved to be too much in the exhibition affair. Oregon was perfect (14-of-14) from the free-throw line. Ionescu accounted for seven of those free throws.
Oregon starts the year as the No. 1 team in women's college basketball for the first time in program history. The Ducks begin their regular season on Monday in a home game against Northeastern at 6 p.m. ET.
