The Barometer Online

Issue date: 2/27/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Cory Reed Senior point guard Mercedes Fox-Griffin drives in an OSU game against Stanford. Fox-Griffin leads the Beavers with 112 assists.

With only three games left in the regular season, all of which are at home, the women's basketball team faces the University of Oregon for the second time in the 2008-09 season.

The first of the two-game series at McArthur Court Jan. 31 was a blowout by the Beavers, who smashed the Ducks 61-42. Oregon (9-17, 5-10 Pac-10) stands with only a few games left in the season.

"What I expect to see from Oregon is for them to come out really aggressive, compared to how they did against us this first time," senior guard Brittney Davis said. "I don't think they were expecting us to be that aggressive and jump on them from the start. I think it will be a better game and better competition. I know they are ready to go and (are) expecting to beat us, so we have to have the same mentality as last time. We know what to do."

Davis has been heading off the team averaging 13.8 points per game. The senior guard has also had 31 steals and 74 assists in the season thus far.

Sophomore guard Talisa Rhea almost matches Davis, averaging 13.7 points per game, and sophomore guard Alex Mitchell has rolled into the third scoring position with a mean of 11.4 points per game. Davis has spent the last 11 games scoring at least 10 points or more, as the offense has excelled in getting her the ball to score.

"It's all because of my teammates that I'm getting open shots," Davis said. "I do my part sometimes by sweeping and going, you know, but most of all it's within the offense and my teammates. If they didn't get me open, I wouldn't be getting the double figure shots."

Oregon will be hungry for a win on Saturday night, as they, too, will be attempting to scoop up the last few wins before basketball heads into post-season games. The Ducks leading scorer, Micaela Cocks, has been averaging 13.7 points per game. However, the Ducks have been continually outscored by nearly nine points per game.

"I think it will be close in the first ten minutes, but if we jump on them from the start like we did the first game, it will be to our advantage," Davis said. "We'll just try and execute during the whole game and not let down. I think it will be fine, and we're going to try and come out with a victory."

Continued...

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