With 2:39 left to play and Oregon clinging to a six-point lead, the Ducks were looking for some sort of spark to put the game out of reach and get the victory.
While many people in attendance expected Joseph Young to be that spark, it was freshman Dillon Brooks and junior Dwayne Benjamin doing the igniting.
On back-to-back possessions, Brooks took a pass on the right wing and drove towards the hoop only to stop short and toss a lob pass to a cutting Benjamin, who emphatically threw down a two-handed jam, giving the Ducks the spark they were looking for.
Behind Young’s game-high 24 points and the plays of Brooks and Benjamin, Oregon survived its first hurdle of the season with a 78-68 win over Toledo in the Progressive Legends Classic.
“It feels good to get the win but we’re not satisfied,” Young said.
Although the Rockets may not be ranked, they feature four returning starters from a team that won 27 games last year and were, according to Oregon head coach Dana Altman, a team nobody in the Classic wanted to face.
Elgin Cook and Benjamin posted the first two double-doubles of Oregon’s season as Cook had 13 points and 12 rebounds while Benjamin added 11 points and 12 rebounds. To go along with his 24 points, Young added three rebounds and three assists while going a perfect 7-for-7 from the charity stripe.
“I thought we played really well,” Altman said. “I’m really proud of the guys.”
The game didn’t start off well for Oregon as Toledo big man Nathan Boothe grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back up for the score for the first points of the game. Boothe came into the game averaging a team-high 18.5 points and was expected to give the undersized Ducks a hard time down in the post.
That didn’t happen.
It was clear the Ducks were going to try to use their speed and quickness to hopefully take Boothe out of the game with foul trouble and it clearly worked. On many occasions, Young, Dillon Brooks and Benjamin would drive right at Boothe while Cook and Jordan Bell would face-up on booth rather than try and back him down.
The end result was Boothe finishing the game with two points and four rebounds before fouling out after playing just 16 minutes.
With Oregon trailing 31-30 with 1:04 left to play in the first half, Young hit a pull-up three-pointer to give the Ducks a 33-30 but it was short-lived as Toledo’s Julius Brown (team-high 19 points) hit his fourth three-pointer of the half to retake the lead at the 34 second mark.
On Oregon’s next possession, its last of the half, Young once again pulled-up for a three-pointer and drilled it to give the Ducks a 36-34 at the half, a lead they would never relinquish.
The second was all about the Ducks controlling the game and exerting a great amount of energy on both ends of the court to keep the lead.
“I thought our effort was really good — when you have guys diving on the floor, it becomes contagious and that was good to see,” Altman said. “Casey (Benson) took two huge charges.”
The play of the game came at the 8:48 mark in the second half when Cook grabbed a defensive rebound, dribbled coast-to-coast before launching himself from just inside the free throw line for an emphatic one-handed slam.
“Nasty — that was just nasty,” Young said of the dunk. “That’s all I can really say.”
Oregon will travel to Brooklyn, New York tomorrow before practicing at noon on Sunday in preparation for its game against No. 24 Michigan at 6 p.m.
Follow Ryan Kostecka on Twitter @Ryan_Kostecka