ANDREW GREIF | SPORTS EDITOR
Oregon turned a sloppy beginning in the first half into a convincing comeback win over Alabama in the first round of the Maui Invitational on Monday night, beating Alabama 92-69.
Oregon found itself down 12-3 with 13:33 left in the first half but a strong run by the Ducks’ bench players, including two three-pointers by freshman Matt Humphrey off the bench, sparked the rest of the lineup and cut the Crimson Tide’s lead to 14-11 with 12 minutes remaining.
The Ducks advance to today’s 6 p.m. semifinal against No. 1 North Carolina and took an important step in the evolution of a young team while in the national spotlight.
“They still make a lot of mistakes but they play with so much energy and passion that you just have to kind of let them go,” head coach Ernie Kent said. “During the course of the game they turned from boys and turned into men.”
Top 5 Impacts
| 1.) Michael Dunigan 2.) Joevan Catron 3.) Kamyron Brown 4.) Ducks’ offense 5.) 53-33 second-half points |
For the first seven minutes of play, the Ducks couldn’t have looked worse, hitting one of their first six shots and committing twice as many turnovers as Alabama.
The Crimson Tide used the senior leadership of Alonzo Gee and Ronald Steele to overpower the young Ducks at times, including an alley-oop dunk to Gee in the first five minutes that exemplified all of Oregon’s struggles.
But after the slow spurt, it seemed to be going all Oregon’s way.
The Ducks cut the lead to three with 9:22 left in the first half on back-to-back layups by Michael Dunigan and Joevan Catron.
“We kept getting stops,” sophomore guard Kamyron Brown said. “We can’t miss every shot.”
Dunigan scored 18 points to lead all scorers and added nine rebounds, while Catron scored 17 with a game-high 12 rebounds.
The Ducks and Crimson Tide were statistically close in most every category, but the Ducks had 19 assists compared to the Tide’s five. Oregon also came back from its horrendous first-half stretch to shoot 53 percent for the game.
Freshman Teondre Williams found success similar to Humphrey’s by hitting a three-pointer to answer an Alabama three-pointer and give the Ducks their first lead of the night at 33-32 with just more than three minutes left, as the pace of play increased toward Oregon’s favor.
In the second half, the Ducks stretched their lead to 10 points with 14 minutes left, despite Tajuan Porter being 0-for-9 from the field at that point.
After a ferocious tip dunk the possession before, LeKendric Longmire hit a three to put Oregon up 59-45 with 13:01 left in the second half, and the lead continued to build.
“Late in the game, as you saw, they were throwing up shots and we were getting the ball and just breaking on them,” Brown said.
Porter hit his first shot with 10:57 left in the second half, a three to put Oregon up 64-48, then made his second less than 30 seconds later to put Oregon up 19, leaving him with 10 points on 2-of-11 shooting. He finished with 12 points.
Top-ranked North Carolina defeated host Chaminade 115-70 in the first round to set up today’s date with Oregon.
“We’ve got a supreme challenge,” Kent said. “We just have to make sure we rise up to that level. One way or another, this team is going to grow. Who knows what will happen.”
ANDREW GREIF
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