SAN ANTONIO – Powered by 22 points from the forward Sedona Prince, the Oregon Ducks advanced to the Sweet 16 on Wednesday with a 57-50 victory over the No. 3 seed Georgia Lady Bulldogs.
But for Prince, the emotions were raw in the postgame, with her thoughts bouncing back and forth between her own personal journey, to her teammates, to the attention of her viral tweet highlighting the inequality between the men’s and women’s tournament.
[The opening game on Monday] I was extremely nervous before because I knew a lot of people would be watching, “Prince said.” So I was nervous. But that’s a good thing. We want more people to watch, so I’ll have to get used to it. I spoke to the trainers and I was there just before the game, but they calmed me down. My teammates crawled around and picked me up. “
Earlier in the week, the San Antonio Spurs arrived a few miles away at their home game, dressed in throwback jerseys from women’s basketball legends like Rebecca Lobo, Cheryl Miller and Becky Hammon.
“That’s great,” said Prince when asked about the Spurs’ gesture. “It’s what we want. It’s what we deserve. We work just as hard and we play great, so we deserve as much credit as the men.”
Prince has received a lot of attention since her tweet which was retweeted nearly 200,000 times and generated national news. But she’s been an advocate for equality in college sports for more than the past week, using her surgery and injury recovery to spot problems there too.
“It’s amazing that I now have such a great platform and am able to inspire and help so many people and showcase my sport, because that’s what it deserves,” said Prince.
“I hope they see that women’s basketball isn’t boring. It’s fun. It’s exciting,” she said. “It’s different from men’s basketball, but in a great way. We play hard and with our hearts and there are so many fundamentals. It’s such a different game, so we wanted to show that we are fun to watch. “
Prince and fellow attacker Nyara Sabally shared a long hug at the buzzer about the victory over Georgia. Both players have overcome personal setbacks, with extreme injuries and difficult moments. Sabally suffered two ACL tears and in 2018 Prince horribly broke her shin and fibula during a tournament game in Mexico City, where she had played for the United States U18 team during the FIBA Americas Championship.
“I saw a video of us hugging each other after the game and it describes us and what we’ve been through,” said Prince through tears. “When I came here we were both so broken and we didn’t know if we were going to play basketball again. She’s such a fun player to play with and I just love her so much and watch where we come and lead this. The Sweet 16’s team is incredible and it feels so good. ”
Born in Texas, Prince spent her freshman year at the University of Texas where she recovered from her injury and moved to Oregon in 2019.
“As you guys just saw in that interview, how blessed I am to coach a young woman like her. She really is the whole package,” said Coach Kelly Graves. “Not only a great player, but just think of the pressure she’s put on her. She’s drawn a lot of attention to her and she supports it. And that’s not easy to do. I’m really proud of her and happy for her ., and the rest of the team. “
The Ducks started off in an uncertain place this season, losing three starters and welcoming in almost an entirely new roster. Last season’s team was a title favorite, led by superstar Sabrina Ionescu.
But after going through the first two rounds to secure a spot in the Sweet 16, Oregon is able to try and reclaim the opportunity the team lost last year.
“It has been a difficult season to deal with expectations. Everyone knows what we lost. Everyone knows what we could and could do in this tournament last year. It has been taken from us,” said Graves. “And I think sometimes people just assume that we will continue this … We have nine new players. In a pandemic year, this is the worst time to have a young team, we just had no chance to work with them together. But from day one, I said a hundred times that March is going to be a tough way out. “
Oregon takes over No. 2 seed Louisville on Sunday.