Often this season, Oregon men’s basketball has made the challenging look effortless. It’s the simple plays, the simple shots, which tend to have the Ducks teetering the line between disastrous loses and marquee wins.
Dana Altman’s squad almost squandered another one Monday night against Oregon State in Corvallis, before narrowly escaping with a 78-76 win.
After Oregon forward Eric Williams Jr. broke a 74-74 tie with 13.2 seconds remaining by way of a heavily contested wing 3-pointer, guard Jacob Young split a pair of free throws giving the Beavers one final chance — a position the Ducks have twice faced season against Pac-12 foes, losing both games at the hands of last second 3s.
With eight seconds to go, the Ducks’ defense swarmed Oregon State guard Jarod Lucas who found teammate Warith Alatishe wide open under the basket. His layup slid off the rim as time expired, pushing the Ducks to 9-6 (2-2 in Pac-12).
Oregon improved to 8-0 when scoring over 70 points.
“Eric came to play and that gave us a big lift, he was the difference in the game tonight,” Altman said.
Williams Jr. who has vacillated between starting and coming off the bench for the Ducks this season scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 24 minutes after having been held to a mere 5 points in his last four games and zero in his last two.
“The last few games I haven’t been really ready to shoot,” Williams Jr. said. “My teammates and my coaches have been wanting me to be more aggressive and I haven’t been in a groove. My knees have been hurting, so I’m not going to make excuses, but I haven’t been out there being aggressive. Coming out and being aggressive I think helped our team down the stretch.”
Young tied Alatishe with a game-high 16 points and added four assists while center N’Faly Dante secured his first double-double of the season, scoring 12 points and collecting 11 rebounds for a Ducks team who outrebounded the Beavers 39-29 (17-6 on the offensive glass), but scored only 8 second chance points. Oregon entered the evening No. 10 in the Pac-12 in rebounds per game.
Monday’s bout was just the Ducks’ third game in the last 29 days, the result of multiple cancellations due to COVID-19. The Ducks missed a host of practices during the stretch as they dealt with cases in the program.
Timely 3s like Williams Jr.’s pushed the Ducks to multiple 7-plus point leads in the second half.
But the simple ones, free throws, in Monday night’s case, nearly doomed them. The Ducks shot 8-of-18 from the free throw line, with several of the misses coming in the game’s final three minutes, and opened the door for a Beavers team which shot 29-of-40 inside the arc — hitting 2-of-16 3-pointers.
“Free throws were a mess… we could have saved ourselves a lot of grief there [by] hitting a few,” Altman said.
Oregon led 51-44 with 13:42 remaining when the Beavers hit their first 3-pointer of the game en route to a 6-0 spurt. The Ducks responded with an 8-1 run of their own and held the largest lead of the night, 62-53, with under nine minutes to go.
Four minutes later, with the 3:44 of that time scoreless for the Ducks, they found themselves deadlocked with Oregon State at 64 apiece. Then Quincy Guerrier scored 6 of his 9 points in the game’s final four minutes, combining with Williams Jr. to account for 12 of the Ducks’ final 13 points.
The Ducks turned what was nearly another detrimental conference loss into a by-the-skin-of-its-teeth win against the rival Beavers. A welcome sign, and crucial outcome, with a road trip to Southern California for matchups against No. 3 UCLA and No. 5 USC looming in less than a week’s time.
“There’s some teams that have separated themselves,” Altman said. “And it’s up to the rest of us to try to catch them. They’re really good and the rest of us have a long way to go.”
Oregon will face the No. 3 Bruins at 6:30 p.m. PST on Thursday in Pauley Pavilion with a chance to add a signature win to a resumé marred by blemishes and seesawing performances.
