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Onyenwere, Miller lead No. 8 UCLA in rout of No. 13 Oregon
Credit: UCLA Athletics (uclabruins.com)

Onyenwere, Miller lead No. 8 UCLA in rout of No. 13 Oregon

LOS ANGELES (AP) — UCLA coach Cori Close has been waiting for her eighth-ranked Bruins to put together a complete game. It happened on Friday night against an unlikely opponent.

UCLA had five players in double figures and dominated the boards in its 83-56 rout of No. 13 Oregon at Pauley Pavillion. It is the first time in five years that the Bruins have won both of their regular-season meetings against the Ducks.

“Before the game (assistant) coach Tony (Newman) challenged our team that we hadn’t put 40 minutes together and said we were prepared to do it,” Close said. “I was proud of our toughness and balance. This win means a lot because Oregon is a tremendous program.”

Michaela Onyenwere scored 17 points and Lauryn Miller added 16 for the Bruins (13-3, 11-3 Pac-12), who had a 47-24 rebounding advantage. Lindsey Corsaro had seven boards and was one of five UCLA players with five or more rebounds.

The Bruins are not known for their 3-point shooting, but made 10 of 22 from beyond the arc, which is their second-highest total of the season. Onyenwere had three 3-pointers along with six rebounds and four assists.

“We had a really great game balancing out the scorers,” said Chantal Horvat, who scored 10 points. “We did a good job on ball movement and getting everyone open looks.”

Oregon (12-6, 9-6 Pac-12) has dropped three straight for the first time since 2016-17, with two being by 20 points or more. It was the biggest regular season loss for the Ducks since a 27-point defeat to Stanford in 2016. Oregon also lost by 21 points to Stanford the next year.

“It was effort, toughness and all of the above. Any superlative you want to use,” coach Kelly Graves said. “We are going to watch and dissect what happened. We’ve had a bunch of burnable (games) this season and at some point we have to watch one.”

Nyara Sabally led Oregon with 12 points and Te-Hina Paopao added 11.

Natalie Chou (14) and Charisma Osborne (13) also scored in double figures for UCLA, which has won three straight and eight of its last nine.

The Bruins led throughout with four of their first six baskets being 3-pointers, including one from Onyenwere that gave them a 16-6 advantage with 4:38 remaining in the first quarter. UCLA closed the quarter on a 12-3 run and had a 28-11 lead after 10 minutes.

UCLA extended its lead to 46-22 at halftime as it closed the second quarter with 11 straight points. Oregon made its first three shots in the quarter before missing 12 of its last 13.

The Bruins’ largest lead was 75-47 midway through the fourth quarter.

BIG PICTURE

Oregon: The Ducks are winless in six games against ranked teams after going 12-1 last season.

“We’ve been an inconsistent team. At some point we have to beat one of these teams,” Graves said. “We have to play better than that. It’s on all of us. UCLA was the aggressors and we have shown when that happens we are softer than we need to be.”

UCLA: The Bruins have been ranked as high as fifth this season, but were on the No. 3 seed line when the NCAA women’s basketball selection committee revealed its top 16 teams earlier this week. A big win over Oregon will certainly garner plenty of attention.

“Coach has been telling us to start treating the last couple games like it is already the tournament. We need to prepare ourselves for what is coming,” Miller said.

UP NEXT

Oregon remains in Los Angeles for a Sunday game against Southern California.

UCLA hosts Oregon State on Sunday.

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More AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25