EUGENE — The ever-growing list of accolades and accomplishments by Sabrina Ionescu is missing one particularly meaningful entry: Winning at Oregon State.
The Oregon superstar is 0-3 in her career at Gill Coliseum, where the Ducks haven’t won since Jan. 9, 2010.
Ionescu, who had 23 points, nine assists and four rebounds to help lead No. 4 Oregon to a 76-64 win over No. 7 Oregon State Friday night, will get a chance to earn a season sweep of the Civil War series with what would be her first road win in the rivalry when the Ducks head to Corvallis Sunday (1 p.m., ESPN2).
“That’s where my focus is right now,” Ionescu said after Friday’s game. "I’m already over this win and ready to get that one on Sunday. Probably going to watch film (Friday) night and start dialing in and figuring out what we can do better and what we need to improve on to get that win on Sunday.
“It’s going to be big for us. We’re not really happy splitting wins with them. That’s going to be a testament for us: We have to continue to get better and we have to continue to play well on the road and we haven’t necessarily done that. We’re going to have to take that next step and have to be an elite team on the road as well as at home.”
Kelly Graves, who also hasn’t won at OSU in his tenure as Oregon’s coach, said Ionescu and senior forward Ruthy Hebard don’t want to leave a hole in the legacy they’re leaving at UO by not winning at Gill.
“That’s certainly something we’d really like to do,” Graves said. “We’ve been capable and they’ve outplayed us down the stretch in a couple of the last few games that could have gone either way.”
Gill was also where Hebard suffered her right knee last year and was not the same while playing at well under 100 percent during the postseason. She’s eager to play at OSU for a final time.
“I’m definitely excited to go up there again and play and I’m glad I got this first one,” Hebard said. “The second on Sunday is going to be really fun to do again.”
Sunday will be the last chance for Ionescu and Hebard to get an elusive win at OSU but it’ll also be the first chance for Oregon’s freshmen to play in the most hostile environment they’ll face during the regular season.
The Ducks are playing with a short bench due to injuries to Lydia Giomi and Lucy Cochrane, but freshmen guards Jaz Shelley and Holly Winterburn are among the few non-starters available.
“I heard the crowd at Gill is something else,” Shelley said. “That will be fun – we’re going to come together, we’ve got to use our voice and we’ve got to communicate. It’s going to be a really good test for us.”
While the impact to legacy and in terms of the rivalry certainly can’t be overlooked, there are also high stakes for Sunday’s game.
Should Oregon win and earn the sweep, it’ll take a commanding three-game edge over Oregon State in the Pac-12 standings and perhaps more importantly, be in the driver’s seat in terms of which team gets to play in the Portland Regional of the NCAA Tournament.
But UConn, Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA and Stanford still left on Oregon’s schedule, Ionescu didn’t want to make more of Sunday’s game than the here and now, though she understands its potential impact.
“There’s so much that can happen before getting to Portland,” she said. “I don’t think that’s necessarily the goal for us winning that game. Obviously, it plays a huge role into the seeding and what happens there but we have so many games left that anything can really happen. We win there and then lose all the rest we’re not getting to Portland. We’re focusing on what we can control and the seeding is not necessarily in our control.”