Sabrina Ionescu shines in opening round, leads Oregon to Sweet 16

Sabrina Ionescu and the Oregon Ducks are headed to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row. The sophomore guard led her team to a pair of victories in Eugene, where they hosted two opening round games as the No. 2 seed in the Spokane Region.

The Ducks are coming off a run to the Elite Eight last season. They were a 10 seed back then. Nobody will underestimate them this time around. And as a preseason top-10 team, they got everyone’s best effort in the regular season.

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Ionescu notched her 10th career triple-double (19 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists) in just 29 minutes in Oregon’s 88-45 first round win over Seattle University.

The NCAA’s all-time leader in career triple-doubles nearly got another one in the second round against Minnesota on Sunday. Minnesota came out firing and made 12 of their 28 three-pointers. Ultimately, they were unable to get enough stops or keep up offensively with the Ducks.

The Ducks shot nearly 61% from the field Sunday, led by Ruthy Hebard (22 points, 11-14 FG, 10 rebounds) and Ionescu (29 points, 10-14 FG, 4-6 3PT, seven rebounds, nine assists).

After Satou Sabally scored the first two points of the game, Ionescu scored or assisted on the next 19 for the Ducks.

Destiny Pitts got the Gophers within three. Ionescu responded with a personal 5-0 run to end the quarter:

Oregon led by eight after the first, then by 15 at the break. Ionescu sent the crowd into a frenzy when she drilled a stepback three-pointer as she was fouled with one second to go in the half:

Ionescu then keyed a run in the opening 1:38 of the third that pushed Oregon’s lead to 23:

Now here are some of Ionescu’s highlights from Friday’s win:

Ionescu and Hebard connected in the first out of a nice early action:

Ionescu used a Satou Sabally screen there to get to the middle of the floor. She fired a bullet inside to Hebard, who had been freed up by a cross screen from Lexi Bando. Then in the second quarter, a Ionescu/Hebard pick and roll netted an open three for Bando:

Every time the Ducks pull down a defensive rebound, the other team’s got to be on high alert to get all the way back. Ionescu’s teammates know they’ll be rewarded for running the floor:

Finally, here are Ionescu’s eight other assists from Friday.

The Ducks will take on the No. 11 seeded Central Michigan Chippewas on Saturday at 6 PM ET. Central Michigan is coming off a stunning round two upset of Ohio State.

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Texas A&M and Notre Dame will face off in the other semifinal of the Spokane Region at 4 PM ET on Saturday. Both games can be seen live on ESPN or streamed on the ESPN app/WatchESPN.

Photos via Serena Morones, OregonLive