Oregon vs No. 12 Baylor | NCAA Women's Basketball | 11.10.24

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EUGENE, Ore. — Only one week and three games into the new college basketball season, Oregon displayed fight and toughness in defending its home court Sunday against a top-15 opponent.

The Ducks hadn't defeated a ranked opponent since February 2023 and had dropped their last 14 such games until Sunday night, when UO fought off a furious comeback bid from 12th-ranked Baylor to pull off a 76-74 upset in front of 6,372 fans at Matthew Knight Arena.

Oregon (3-0) saw its 16-point fourth-quarter lead evaporate after a 17-2 Baylor run to start the final frame. Trailing by two with under 90 seconds to go, Deja Kelly came up with the tying basket and then set up teammate Elisa Mevius, who drove and sank her only field goal of the night with 22 seconds on the clock.

"The goal was just to get a good look," Kelly said of the go-ahead possession. "I drove baseline, I knew that we were going to have our two guards on the opposite side and Elisa made a great play herself."

Mevius caught the ball in the far corner and used a screen from Phillipina Kyei to find a seam in the Baylor defense and get to the basket to hit the go-ahead lay-in.

"I couldn't be more thrilled," said Oregon head coach Kelly Graves. "We played so, so well for a good portion of that game and lost that big lead, but to come back and make the plays down the stretch like we did, shows a lot of character. Just really proud of our team."

Kelly finished with a team-high 20 points and nine rebounds to go with five assists and three steals. The Ducks' graduate transfer point guard scored 13 of her points in the second half on 5-of-9 shooting.

Alexis Whitfield finished with 16 points, including nine second-quarter points, and Nani Falatea added 12 off the bench and drained a pair of 3-pointers.

"Today showed we have fight in us, and we want it and that we can battle," said Whitfield. "That was the importance of this game today for us as a team, to show we know how to fight and be strong."

How It Happened: The Ducks seized momentum early in the ballgame, as UO scored the first six points of the game and jumped out to a 13-4, courtesy of four points apiece from Kelly and Peyton Scott. The Bears would make a run of their own in response, outscoring Oregon 10-2 to cut the Ducks' lead to 15-14 after 10 minutes.

Baylor claimed its first lead of the night early in the second quarter, but had no answer for Whitfield, who scored nine of her 16 points in the second period. After the Bears took a 25-20 lead, the Oregon graduate transfer made back-to-back buckets to kickstart a 15-2 Oregon run. Whitfield was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field during the run before Nani Falatea capped the half with her first three of the night to extend the UO lead, 35-27, at the half.

The Oregon Ducks take on Baylor Bears at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon on November 10, 2024

The Bears opened the second half by scoring five of the first seven points to pull within two, but five points from Kelly and a three from Sophia Bell pushed the lead back up to double digits.

Oregon kept Baylor at arm's length for the rest of the period, not letting the Bears get back within eight, thanks to increased intensity on the defensive side. UO forced six turnovers in the quarter after generating five in the first half. Mevius tallied two steals herself as the Ducks raced out to a 64-48 lead heading into the fourth, their largest lead of the night.

Baylor chipped away at the Oregon lead, as the Bears began the fourth quarter on a 17-2 run to cut the Oregon lead to just one, 68-67, with just over five minutes left to play.

A Kyei putback and two Kelly free throws pushed the lead back to five, giving the momentum back to Oregon and its raucous crowd with 3:32 to play.

Down two with under 90 seconds on the clock, Kelly tied the game at 74-74 with a jumper, giving her 20 points on the night. After the Ducks got a defensive stop, Kelly found Mevius, who maneuvered around a Kyei screen and sank the go-ahead layup with 22 seconds left.

Notable: UO snapped a 14-game losing streak to ranked opponents, picking up its first ranked win since Feb. 23, 2023 against then-No. 14 Arizona (73-59) … The Ducks begin the season 3-0 for the 10th straight season and picked up their 67th win over their last 69 home nonconference games … The win was Oregon's first in the series history against Baylor (1-5).

Up Next: The Ducks host North Texas on Tuesday (11 a.m., B1G+).