EUGENE, Ore. - Oregon didn’t waste any time setting the tone on opening day at Matthew Knight Arena.
A 12-0 run in the first quarter helped the Ducks open the 2026-27 season with an 87-54 win over Hawaii, and the night turned into a showcase for depth, shooting and a frontcourt that had to work for everything against a real rim protector. Four starters finished in double figures, all 11 Ducks got on the floor, and Oregon looked every bit like a team that knew what it wanted to do from the jump.
Mallory Heyer made the kind of debut Oregon was hoping for. The Minnesota transfer led the Ducks with 16 points, while Ehis Etute added 15 points and 14 rebounds, including 12 offensive boards - the most by a Duck since 2016. Katie Fiso and Ari Long each scored 14, with Fiso handing out a game-high nine assists and Long setting a new career high with six steals.
“It was a first good start. I thought we did some really good things tonight,” said Oregon coach Kelly Graves, who is entering his 40th season coaching college basketball.
“I loved the effort. I loved the fact that we got everybody in and everybody contributed.”
Graves didn’t love everything, though. He pointed to the sloppier second quarter, the only period Hawaii won, and said Oregon had some issues handling Rainbow Wahine standouts Bailey Flavell, who finished with a game-high 24 points, and Ritorya Tamilo, who posted 14 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocked shots.
Heyer’s first game in an Oregon uniform gave the Ducks exactly the kind of floor-stretching presence they were missing. She scored 16 first-half points and hit 4 of 8 from 3-point range, with most of her damage coming in pick-and-pop action after Fiso drew extra attention and kicked it out.
“Difference-maker, there’s no question,” Graves said. “She’s one of our better 3-point shooters.
She kind of cooled off a little bit, but she’s able to stretch the defense, and when teams have to stay on Avary Cain and now stay on Mallory, that gives Katie a lot of room to operate with the ball and it gives Ehis some freedom to make plays inside. We expect that from Mallory.
She’s been shooting the heck out of it pretty much all fall.”
It was Heyer’s first game action since the 2024-25 season. She arrived at Oregon from Minnesota in the middle of last season after splitting with the Gophers before the year began.
“I was so excited for the game today, and I think the crowd was amazing today for a 3 PM game. We had a lot of fans show up,” Heyer said. “It was a fun game.”
Oregon’s 3-point volume was another clear part of the plan. Graves has been pushing for more attempts, and the Ducks took 32 against Hawaii after launching 22 in the first half alone. They made nine of those first-half tries, built a 15-point lead, and finished 11 of 32 from deep.
The second half was cooler - Oregon hit just 2 of 10 - but Graves still liked the shot quality.
“We didn’t particularly shoot the three well tonight,” Graves said. “But I liked our shots. I think a lot of those are going to fall in the future if continue to get those types of shots.”
That approach fits the roster Oregon has. The Ducks don’t have much size, and Graves said that means spreading the floor and creating catch-and-shoot looks is the path forward.
“That’s kind of the way we need to play. We’re not the biggest team, so we’re going to try and spread people out, get downhill, kick it out and catch and shoot,” Graves said.
Fiso was central to that plan, creating plenty of open looks for teammates while also showing growth as a shooter herself. She made 2 of 5 from long range after going 4 of 24 last season. Long added four 3-pointers, Heyer hit four, and Cain made the other one.
“I think a lot of our guards were doing a good job of getting downhill, touching the paint, and posts did a great job of reading the defender and figuring out when to pop,” Fiso said.
The other big lesson from the night came in the paint, where Hawaii’s size gave Oregon a preview of what it may see more often this season. Tamilo, a 6-foot-5 center with long arms and a strong shot-blocking presence, made life difficult for Etute around the rim. She blocked Etute three times in the first half and finished with seven blocks overall.
Etute still found ways to produce, but she had to earn it. Her lone make over Tamilo came on a second effort, when she lowered her shoulder into Tamilo’s chest and converted a three-point play. Freshman Emilia Krstevski also scored twice over Tamilo in just 10 minutes.
“I’m actually kind of thankful they had such a good post presence because that’s what we’re going to see in the Big Ten,” Fiso said.
Hawaii finished with 12 blocked shots as a team, and Graves said Oregon adjusted better after halftime by moving Tamilo away from the basket.
“You want your kids to be aggressive to the basket, but my goodness, at some point you’ve got to realize she’s standing right there and she’s going to go get it,” Graves said. “We’re not a big team, so we’re going to have to get used to those kinds of players.
I thought we did a better job in the second half of trying to bring [Tamilo] away from the basket. We did a better job of pulling her out and that allowed Ehis to post up on their next tallest player.
She’s a load when she gets that opportunity.”
Etute scored 10 of her 15 points when someone other Tamilo was guarding her in the paint.
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