University of Oregon
New Mexico
Record Night For Lilley Spurs Ducks To Third Round
03/24/10 | Women's Basketball
EUGENE, Ore. – A record night for senior guard Taylor Lilley led the Ducks to 93-67 victory over New Mexico in the second round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament on Tuesday night at Mac Court.
The Ducks (18-15) will now host California at 7 p.m., Thursday night at Mac Court in third round action.
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Oregon's 18 wins are the most for the program since 2004-05, when the team finished its season 21-10 and made UO's last NCAA Tournament appearance.
Lilley tied the Oregon program record for points in single game with 38 on Tuesday night in front of 2,317. The Newhall, Calif., native led all scorers, and hit the 30-point plateau for the third time in her career. She shot 12-of-25 from the floor, and knocked down seven 3-pointers, bringing her season total to 122 - which ties for third all-time in NCAA single-season history.
Sophomore forward Amanda Johnson recorded her 11th double-double on the season scoring 22 points and pulling down 13 rebounds to lead the Ducks on the boards for the fifth consecutive game.
Also reaching double figures was junior Victoria Kenyon, who matched her career high with 18 points, and also matched a career best draining four of her six 3-point attempts. Sophomore point guard Nia Jackson scored just two points, but was the orchestrator of the offense with a game-high and career-high tying eight assists as well as a new career high eight rebounds.
New Mexico (19-13), which was making its 13th consecutive postseason appearance, shot just 37.1 percent from the floor and was outrebounded by the Ducks 50-39. Oregon outscored the Lobos 32-26 in the paint, and the Ducks scored 25 second-chance points off 23 offensive boards. UNM's 15 turnovers also turned in to 20 points for Oregon.
New Mexico's Amanda Best scored a team-high 18 points, while Sara Halasz added 11. Nikki Nelson chipped in 11 points as well for the Lobos.
Oregon held a five-point lead at the start of the second half, but the Ducks were spurred by Johnson's 18 second-half points. UO opened the second half on a 12-4 run to lead 53-40 with 17:04 to play as Johnson scored seven of her 22 points in that stretch.
UNM would cut the double-digit lead down to seven, 57-50, with 13:55 remaining, but a 3-pointer from Johnson put the Ducks back up by double digits as a 16-3 run had Oregon leading comfortably, 73-53, with 9:49 to play after one of Kenyon's four treys.
The Ducks largest lead of the game came at the 2:06 mark after a Kristi Fallin tip-in had UO ahead 91-60.
Oregon's 26-point margin of victory was its second largest in postseason history, as the Ducks defeated Toledo, 93-63, in the semifinals of the NWIT in 1989.
Oregon will now advance to the third round of the WNIT for the third time in school history. In 2007, the Ducks fell 64-62 to Wyoming in Laramie, falling short of the quarterfinals.
Notes: Micaela Cocks played the 124th game of her collegiate career at Oregon, tying for first all-time with Jenny Mowe….Lilley now has 122 3-pointers on the season to lead the country pending statistics from the remainder of Tuesday night's games…her 122 3-pointers also tie for third all-time in NCAA single-season history…Lilley's 593 points this season rank fifth in Oregon single-season history…Amanda Johnson's 285 rebounds rank 10th in UO single-season history…Nia Jackson's 81 steals rank seventh in Oregon single-season history…Lilley's 1,407 career points rank eighth all-time at the UO…Lilley now has drained 268 career 3-pointers…Lilley's 38 points matched only Debbie Adams' 38-point performance vs. Seattle on March 8, 1980 for the most scored by an Oregon player at Mac Court…Lilley's 18 3-point field goal attempts are a new single-game record for an Oregon player at Mac Court…Cocks' 1,185 career points tie for 14th in UO all-time history…Oregon's 18 wins are the most for the program since 2004-05 (21-10).
