Of course they were down.
That’s what Oregon men’s basketball does now: come from behind. They trailed for half an hour in Columbus on Thursday night, but with the ball in Jackson Shelstad’s hands, down one point with seven seconds on the clock, there was no worry. As he had done all night, Shelstad drove down the court with supreme speed, laid a shoulder into his defender’s chest and drew the double-bonus foul.
Swish. Swish.
Buzzer.
This is a team whose identity was in question after it lost its two major stars from 2023-24. They’ve found it now: they’re comeback kids. The No. 15 Ducks (14-2, 3-2 Big Ten) struggled in a first half that didn’t live up to their standards, but Shelstad and resurgent center Nate Bittle lit the flame out of the break and pushed the Ducks to a 46-point second period and an immense 73-71 victory over the Buckeyes (10-6, 2-3 Big Ten) that moves them into position for a strong road trip.
The Ducks rolled onto their first flight east of the season on the back of a comeback win over Maryland last Sunday, a game in itself a bounce-back victory after Oregon suffered a blowout loss at the hands of No. 13 Illinois. The team hadn’t left the West Coast prior to this week’s trip, which also includes a visit to State College to face Penn State.
Oregon head coach Dana Altman rolled out his favored recent lineup: TJ Bamba was favored next to Jackson Shelstad in the backcourt to Keeshawn Barthelemy, while big man Nate Bittle (13.4 ppg in career-high 26.2 mins) teamed up with forwards Brandon Angel and Jadrian Tracey.
The guard duo scored the Ducks’ first nine points: Bamba opened up the game for the Ducks with four after going 1-8 from the field against the Terps last weekend. Shelstad posted a 5-5 record from beyond the arc on Sunday, and followed it up with 24 points on 8-11 shooting from the field and 4-6 accuracy from beyond the arc. Bittle splashed from 3-point land to break the streak, but Oregon then wouldn’t score for nearly four minutes.
Shelstad went head-to-head throughout with the Buckeyes’ star guard, Bruce Thornton. The junior has played at least 30 minutes in all three of his years in Columbus, but was posting a career-high 16.9 points per game headed into the matchup with the Ducks. He put up 20 points as the Ducks went 2-11 from the field down the first-half stretch and the Buckeyes stretched their lead to a game-high eight points.
Oregon was held to its lowest first-half total (27 points) since facing USC in Los Angeles in December and the University of Portland in November. In both of those games, it scored at least 44 second-half points and secured a win. The Ducks shot just 29% from the field and had five of nine players with first-half minutes finish the period without a point. They held Ohio State scoreless for the final 2:35 in order to prevent a ballooning lead, but still trailed by five at the break.
The issue was compounded when the Buckeyes came out of the locker room with a 7-0 run that opened up their largest lead of the night. A subpar defensive effort out of the half gave up eight points in the paint in 10 possessions within the first five minutes of the second period.
Shelstad seemed determined to burn the nets in protest. The guard scored seven straight from the field for the Ducks in order to cut the lead back to five with 14 minutes to play. Brandon Angel then scored his first five points of the night to draw Oregon within a possession with eight minutes left on the clock.
Thornton, though, responded with a dancing 3-point make over Angel at the other end and left the Buckeyes with a vital two-possession lead. Bittle (21 points, 7-14, 4-8 3-pointers) brought the Ducks back within a possession twice with his third and fourth 3-point makes of the night, but it wasn’t until Shelstad shook Micah Parrish to the floor and drained the ensuing shot that the Ducks would take their first lead since inside the game’s first four minutes.
The Buckeyes scored five points in the last 2:37, but Shelstad drove hard, drew his free throws with 7.5 seconds left, and Oregon’s comeback kids did it again. They’re 5-1 when trailing at the half, as they were in Columbus.
They’re also ranked 15th, 14-2, and as confident as ever.
