Serena Morones/For The Oregonian

Maite Cazorla played a key role in Oregon's victory Sunday at Utah just two days after leaving Friday's win over Colorado with what many believed was a fractured hand. X-rays were negative for a break, however, and she will be in the lineup again this weekend for matchups with No. 25 Cal and No. 24 Stanford.

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By Andrew Greif, The Oregonian/OregonLive

EUGENE — For a sports weekend most often called super, Kelly Graves is proposing a different descriptor.

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“This can kind of be separation weekend,” Oregon’s women’s basketball coach said Monday.

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Separation, because in home games Friday against 25th-ranked California, and Sunday against No. 24 Stanford, Graves’s Ducks can distance themselves from two more challengers en route to potentially the program’s first women’s basketball conference title in 18 years.

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At 9-1 against conference opponents just past the midway point of the Pac-12 schedule, sixth-ranked Oregon remains in first place coming off a road sweep of Colorado and Utah entering its pair of home games against the Bay Area opponents at Matthew Knight Arena. The Golden Bears (15-6, 6-4 Pac-12) are tied for fifth, and the Cardinal (14-8, 8-2) tied with UCLA for second, one game behind UO.

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This will be Oregon’s only meeting against the Bay Area schools in the regular season, and that quirk of the schedule underscores the importance of this weekend. In the second half of conference play, the Ducks host nearly all of their stiffest competitors — UCLA, Stanford and Cal — while three of their four remaining road games come against the bottom three teams in the standings.

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“I truly think this weekend we can separate ourselves if we’re fortunate to win a couple games,” said Graves, whose team has won 12 of its last 13. “That gives us a little cushion between us and Stanford and then we’d have the tiebreaker, because we don’t have them the second time.

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“Another loss puts Cal in a tough situation and then it became perhaps us and UCLA. This weekend is important.”

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Oregon is 2-3 against Cal and 1-5 against Stanford under Graves but is currently playing with its strongest team, even without senior shooting guard Lexi Bando. She has missed the last four games with a stress reaction in her left leg but in a best-case scenario, Graves said, Bando could perhaps return in “maybe a couple weeks,” ahead of a crucial homestand against UCLA and USC.

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UO’s backcourt depth was nearly thinned again in Friday’s win at Colorado, when junior Maite Cazorla’s right hand was stepped on while diving for a loose ball. Athletic trainers for both teams believed her shooting hand was broken, and Graves “left the gym that night thinking the worst.” The postgame celebration was muted.

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X-rays taken Friday night in Boulder did not show a fracture, however, and a specialist confirmed the next day there was no break. Cazorla didn’t practice prior to Sunday’s victory at Utah but declared herself ready after warmups. And ready she was. Cazorla made all five of her three-point attempts Sunday against the Utes, resumed her duties as the team’s primary ballhandler and allowed Sabrina Ionescu to play off the ball in a role she’s more comfortable in.

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“That’s the one injury we couldn’t afford to sustain,” Graves said.

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All four of Cal’s Pac-12 losses have come to ranked teams. Kristine Anigwe is scoring a team-high 17.9 points and grabbing 9.6 rebounds in conference play and will be a key matchup for a UO defense that has struggled against good post players. Yet to stay with Oregon, Cal will need to make outside shots, as well. The Golden Bears rank last in the Pac-12 in three-point shooting.

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Stanford is once again in contention despite appearing uncharacteristically vulnerable to start the season. It wasn't the four nonconference losses to teams ranked in the nation’s top nine that was odd, but the fifth — a head-scratching December defeat to Western Illinois that was just Stanford’s 11th home loss in as many seasons. Two of the team’s best players sat out that night with injuries, including DiJonai Carrington, the sister of former UO receiver Darren Carrington, but coach Tara VanDerveer called the absences no excuse. The next week, the Cardinal fell out of the Associated Press top-25 for the first time since 2001.

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Yet they opened league play by beating preseason favorite No. 11 UCLA, and avenged a Jan. 7 loss to Arizona State last weekend by routing the Sun Devils by 24. Their resurgence has come through the conference’s stingiest defense, allowing 56.2 points per game — nearly five points fewer than the next best, Cal — and the Pac-12’s third-best shooting percentage.

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“I think as soon as you start to question them they take that challenge and that’s what a Hall of Fame coach can do and a team with great talent,” Graves said. “No one’s crying for them, they’re pretty dang good.”

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While beating the Cardinal would result in a leg up in the standings, Graves wasn’t sure whether a win over the perennial title contender would also necessarily boost his young team’s psyche. Stanford’s mystique isn’t gone. Yet for the Ducks, beating Oregon State on Jan. 21 for the first time in 15 games was a more emotional victory. Taking down the conference’s three-time champion opened a clear path to a title.

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“In their short tenure in the league or while they were being recruited,” Graves said of UO’s players, “Oregon State has been the top dog. That game was big for us to finally get that win.”

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Nonetheless, every game is now big for a Ducks team that finds itself in the unusual position of sitting atop the conference.

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— Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

@andrewgreif