Joseph Young came into tonight’s game against Washington 30 points shy of the 2000 point milestone. Tonight, Young surpassed that milestone with a 32 point performance, but his final two points were particularly special.
With the scored tied at 74 with under one minute to play, Oregon (16-7, 6-4) gave the ball to Young on the perimeter as the shot clock ticked down. The senior guard faked right, then drove to his left, split three Husky defenders, floated the ball up towards the rim and drained it.
“The play was ‘Joe, make a play,’ pass it, or shoot it,” Young said. “First I was going to pass it to Elgin, but they stepped out and he kind of opened the drive and I just drove it. It was wide open.”
Behind Young, Oregon men’s basketball edged Washington 78-74 in a back-and-forth battle on Wednesday night at Matthew Knight Arena.
Both teams could not stop each other. Washington (16-7, 3-7) shot 56.7 percent from the field and scored 46 points in the paint, while Oregon shot 57 percent from the field and 43 percent from three point range.
But at the end of the day, Oregon’s efforts on defense ended up deciding the game.
After Young made his go-ahead basket, Washington had one possession left to tie the game, but the Ducks came away with a steal before the Huskies could set anything up.
“I wish they’d have done that a few more times during the ball game,” head coach Dana Altman said. “But they did it when they had to have it.”
The Ducks tried switching from man to zone defense. They also tried double teaming and hedging, but nothing worked. Washington’s star guard Nigel Williams-Goss went 9-13 on the night for 19 points to lead the team, while Portland native Andrew Andrews contributed 14 points on 6 of 8 shooting.
Oregon’s all-time leading shot blocker Jordan Bell didn’t pick up a single rejection, even with Washington big man Robert Upshaw off the team.
“I was a little disappointed that Jordan didn’t contest a few more shots,” Altman said. “We’ve come to rely on him so much as a team. He wasn’t nearly as active today.”
Bell finished with just four points, but brought down eight rebounds and two steals.
On the other end, Oregon’s offense was humming.
Elgin Cook was Oregon’s secondary contributor, scoring 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting from the field. Jalil Abdul-Bassit and Dillon Brooks chipped nine and eight points in respectively.
After handing Washington a 10-point comeback the last time the two teams played in Seattle, the Ducks have now won a string of close games, something that Altman has taken as a positive.
“Winning close games and losing close games is a habit,” Altman said. “If you’re losing close games you’re looking for bad things to happen. If you’re winning close games, you’re looking for good things to happen. It is pretty important to win those close ones.”
The Ducks will have to find a way to continue that streak when they face Washington State at 4 p.m. on Sunday at Matthew Knight Arena.
Follow Josh Schlichter @joshschlichter