It’s March, and a Dana Altman coached team is playing basketball. In a potential final game of the year for Oregon, a new rotation was thrown straight into the fire.
On the road for the first game of the National Invitation Tournament, the Ducks didn’t have a lot of things going for them. They lost five of their last six games and were again without their leading scorer Will Richardson. Richardson and starting center N’Faly Dante did not make the trip to Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, both out with a non-COVID related illness.
The game consisted of drastically different halves. Whatever Altman told his guys in the halftime locker room worked wonders. After a 4 point deficit with 20 to go, the Ducks (20-14) took over, handling the Aggies (18-16) 83-72 to secure Altman his 300th win as Oregon’s coach.
During the Pac-12 tournament, the Ducks relied on Jacob Young and Quincy Guerrier to jump start the offense. The duo averaged over 20 points in the two Las Vegas games, but early foul trouble limited their ability to quickly replicate.
“Well I just thought the guys stayed together,” Altman said. “Jacob got it going in the second half. Tough first half with the two fouls — Quincy had a tough first half with the two fouls but the guys stayed together.”
Rivaldo Soares got his first start of the year and helped out early. He scored the teams’ first basket and finished with 13 as the Ducks took a quick 10-2 lead.
“I thought Waldo really gave us a big lift” Altman said. “I thought he did a tremendous job.”
The focus on the defensive end was eliminating Justin Bean entirely. The Aggies’ leading scorer and rebounder never got going. He ended the game well below his 17-plus point per game average, picking up only 9.
Utah State went on a pair of 11 point runs of its own through a flurry of 3 point baskets from Steven Ashworth, but Oregon never looked discouraged. They continued to lock down Bean and managed to hang around, never letting the lead reach double digits.
To combat the runs, the Ducks went to Devion Harmon. He welcomed the hostile environment and put on a clinic. He scored 16 of his 19 points in the first half and was the team’s only bright spot during that stretch.
“Devion carried us the first half, and I thought he made some good plays in the second half,” Altman said. “I just thought it was a good team effort.”
The first half saw no other Duck score more than 4 as the team found themselves in a similar situation.
A 6 point halftime deficit in the previous game against Colorado saw the team crumble down the stretch. Down 4 against Utah State, Oregon stole the momentum.
Young found his shot and the defense expanded their dominance. The grad-transfer swapped roles with Harmon and scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half while Bean was no longer the only Aggie struggling to score.
Both teams went into halftime shooting 42.5% from the field. In the second half the Aggies couldn’t replicate. Oregon improved to shoot the ball at over 50% while stifling the barrage of shots from behind the arc for the Aggies.
The Ducks took the lead back with 18:37 to go on a Young layup and held onto it until the end. With just over 2 minutes to go, a Williams Jr. layup returned the lead to 17. Starters on both teams began to head to the sidelines as the backups finished the game out with no real chance of a serious comeback.
“Really fun game for the guys; they’re feeling pretty good so we’ll get back tonight and figure out the next step and go from there,” Altman said.
The next step for Altman’s squad is a trip to Texas to face the No. 1 seeded Aggies of A&M. Richardson and Dante may still be out, but the Ducks will look to improve upon their second round NIT exit in 2018.
