The Ducks snapped their four-game conference losing streak Saturday afternoon, pulling away from the Beavers during the final eight minutes to get back in the win column with a 79-63 victory in front of 9,087 at McArthur Court.
And while the Beavers are setting new standards for Pacific-10 Conference futility, Oregon (13-8 overall, 4-5 Pac-10) players said that the Beavers are better than their record would lead you to believe.
“I don’t think their record does them justice,” said senior guard Malik Hairston. “They’re athletic, big and talented.”
“This is a step in the right direction, but it gets even tougher because we’re going out on the road,” said senior guard Bryce Taylor. “It’s going to be important for us to finish games.”
This was a game the Ducks certainly finished strong, offensively and defensively. Oregon State (6-15, 0-9) pulled to within one point at 57-56 with 8:16 left in the game, but the Ducks would outscore the Beavers 22-7 over the final eight minutes thanks to lock-down defense and in large part to the clutch shooting of sophomore guard Tajuan Porter, who looks to have finally gotten his stroke back from beyond the three point arc.
“A couple of TP’s threes were daggers,” said coach Ernie Kent. “I thought he was stellar defensively in the game, he ran the team very well, plus he got his shots as well too and he hit some big buckets coming down the stretch.”
“I just try to take good shots,” said Porter. “I’ve been in the gym taking extra shots, and they went in for me today.”
Porter led all scorers in the game with 23 points, 16 in the second half, while adding five rebounds and an assist.
“Tajuan stepped up and hit those back-breaking shots he’s known for,” said senior guard Bryce Taylor. Taylor was next in scoring for the Ducks with 17 points on 6-for-9 shooting, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.
Kent has been critical of the Ducks’ point guard play during the four-game losing streak, and said he has told Porter and freshman Kamyron Brown that they need to step up their games for this team to be successful.
“We’ve been preaching to both him and Kamyron that we need better point guard play,” said Kent. “More steady, more heady, and just solid point guard play.”
Brown did not play in the game, and Kent said they wanted to make sure his ankle, hurt earlier in the week playing basketball on his own time, had plenty of time to heal. Brown and fellow freshman Drew Viney, who saw his first seven minutes of Pac-10 play Saturday, left the team Sunday to attend the funeral of Brown’s grandmother, who passed away last week. Viney will be back in practice Tuesday, according to Kent, and Brown will rejoin the team Thursday in the Bay Area, where the Ducks will face Stanford at 7 p.m. on Thursday, and California at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Kent said he plans on using more of his bench for the conference stretch run, and believes that playing his starters less in the first half will leave them fresher to close out games, something the Ducks have struggled with.
One of those bench players is Mitch Platt, who hasn’t seen much playing time in the conference schedule, but played eight productive minutes against the Beavers. Platt chipped in four points, four rebounds and two assists in the game.
“He made some great plays, some great decisions,” said Kent. “If he plays solid, he can help us down the stretch and that’s what I told him. I thought he helped us in the ballgame.”
Kent said of the upcoming road trip that while Stanford has been a tough place to win for Oregon, he thinks the road will be good for the team.
“We just need to go out on the road I think to really come together,” he said. “Just to get out there by ourselves right now, I think it will be good for us.”
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