by Steve Mims

EUGENE, OREGON

The Oregon men’s basketball team pulled off a sweep of Colorado and Utah last week at Matthew Knight Arena to resuscitate its NCAA Tournament hopes.

Quincy Guerrier had 16 points and six rebounds as the Ducks defeated Colorado 75-69 on Thursday. Keeshawn Barthelemy, a transfer from Colorado, pitched in with 13 points against his former team while Nate Bittle had 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Two nights later, the Ducks defeated Utah 68-56 as Jermaine Couisnard had 18 points and five rebounds. Will Richardson had 12 points and seven assists while senior center N’Faly Dante bounced back from injury to add nine points and 10 rebounds off the bench.

At 13-9, Oregon still has a lot of work to do in order to seek an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament next month, but the Ducks moved into fifth place in the conference at 7-4. Oregon hits the road this week to face fifth-ranked Arizona on Thursday and Arizona State on Saturday.

OREGON WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

^{Oregon Women’s Basketball 2023 Grace VanSlooten, Photos by GoDucks.com}

Oregon survived a scare to win at California on Friday before falling short at Stanford on Sunday.

Freshman forward Grace VanSlooten had 20 points and nine rebounds to lead the Ducks to a 78-73 win at Cal.

Endyia Rogers added 18 points and five assists as Oregon rallied from a one-point deficit in the final quarter.
Te-Hina Paopao had 13 points while Chance Gray and Phillipina Kyei added 12 and 11, respectively.

Oregon struggled to shoot against third-ranked Stanford in a 62-54 loss in the Bay Area.

Gray and Kyei scored 12 points each to lead the Ducks, who made 20-of-80 shots from the field. VanSlooten scored 11 points while Kyei grabbed a team-high 17 rebounds.

Oregon fell to 14-7 and dropped into a tie for seventh place in the Pac-12 at 5-5 as they head home to face Colorado on Friday and seventh-ranked Utah on Sunday.

TRACK AND FIELD

The Oregon teams split their weekend at the Texas Tech Open and University of Washington Invitational.

Jorinde Van Klinken reset her own indoor school record in the shot put with a toss of 60-feet, 10.5-inches in Texas.

Lexi Ellis won the triple jump at Texas Tech with a mark of 44-3.5 while Izzy Thornton-Bott won the mile at UW in 4 minutes, 38.46 seconds. Aaliyah McCormick won the 60-meter hurdles in 8.07 seconds to move up to fourth in school history.

Thornton-Bott teamed with Klaudia Kazmierska, Mia Moerck, and Maddy Elmore to win the distance medley relay.

Elliott Cook won the 800-meters for the men at Washington and teamed with Matthew Erickson, Matt Pueschner, and Ben Reynolds to capture the distance medley relay in 9 minutes, 43.27 seconds.

Micah Williams won the 60-meters in 6.49 seconds at Texas Tech.

OREGON FOOTBALL

Oregon added one more member to its 2023 recruiting class when four-star cornerback Rodrick Pleasant signed a letter of intent on Wednesday.

The 5-foot-11, 180-pounder from Gardena, Calif. is ranked as the No. 80 player in the country by 247Sports.com and one of the top 10 recruits in California. He is also an accomplished track athlete who broke the California state record in the 100-meters with a time of 10.14 seconds.

Steve Mims has spent 25 years as a sportswriter, including 21 years at The Register-Guard. He covered University of Oregon athletics from 2013-2020. He works in Eugene as a registered representative and insurance agent at PBC Insurance. He can be reached at smims@pbcins.com.