The Oregon men’s basketball team opened its Pacific-10 Conference schedule Thursday night with a 62-54 loss to Arizona State in Tempe, but bounced back to upset No. 21 Arizona 84-74 Saturday in Tucson.
Oregon (10-4, 1-1 Pac-10) shot 46 percent from the field in its loss to the Sun Devils. The 54 points of offense marked the lowest point total of the season for the Ducks. Oregon had 14 assists in the game to 16 turnovers.
Despite their offensive woes, the Ducks led 30-26 at halftime and again at 42-36 with seven minutes left in a tight contest that featured nine ties and four lead changes. The Sun Devils (12-2, 2-0 Pac-10) would regain the lead for good at 49-47 on a James Harden three-pointer with less than five minutes remaining.
Harden led all scorers in the game with 20 points. Senior forward Malik Hairston led Oregon with 14 points and Bryce Taylor added 13 points and six rebounds.
The Ducks found their offensive rhythm Saturday, shooting 56 percent from the field in their win over Arizona (10-4, 1-1 Pac-10). The Ducks also reversed their assist-to-turnover ratio woes in the win, as they had 19 assists to 13 turnovers.
Oregon led by as many as 19 points in the first half, but the Wildcats would claw back to within five in the second on the strength of 30 points by forward Chase Budinger, two short of his career best. For the third game in a row Arizona was without the services of its leading scorer, freshman guard Jerryd Bayless, who has a sprained right knee.
Oregon played both games without sophomore forward Joevan Catron, who tore the plantar fascia ligament in his right foot in the Ducks’ final non-league game, an 81-73 win over Mount St. Mary’s at McArthur Court. Catron had strained the ligament earlier in the preseason and is expected to be out for at least three weeks.
Freshman guard Kamyron Brown got the start against Arizona State in Catron’s absence, and the lineup shuffle continued Saturday as coach Ernie Kent started Churchill Odia in place of sophomore guard Tajuan Porter, who struggled on the road trip. Porter scored nine points against Arizona State, and matched that total against Arizona in 27 minutes off the bench. Porter went a combined 7-of-23 from the field for the trip, including 1-of-12 from beyond the three-point arc.
Senior forward Malik Hairston matched his career high of 29 points to lead the Ducks in scoring against the Wildcats on 11-of-17 shooting, including 3-of-5 from three-point range.
Senior forward Maarty Leunen notched his conference-leading ninth double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds against Arizona. It was the tenth double-digit rebounding performance of the season for Leunen, who also surpassed Luke Jackson (746) and Charlie Franklin (747 in 1955-58) for sixth on the Oregon career rebounding list with 753.
Junior transfer Frantz Dorsainvil has seen an increase in playing time since the injury to Catron, most notably in the game against Mount St. Mary’s when Catron was injured. Dorsainvil chipped in 10 points and two rebounds after replacing the injured Catron in that game.
“I had to step up and play big today. I have tried to make plays on defense and show I can play out there,” said Dorsainvil in an Oregon release.
Kent said that they will need Dorsainvil to continue to step up his game for the Ducks to be successful against Pac-10 competition. “I thought Frantz did a really good job filling in for Joevan,” he said. “And we’re going to need him.”
The road doesn’t get any easier for the Ducks from here, as the Pac-10 features several ranked teams and is regarded as possibly the best conference in the nation by most accounts-and this comes after a disappointing December that saw the Ducks drop road games against Nebraska, 88-79 in overtime, and Oakland, 68-62 at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich.
Kent said after the loss to Oakland, the Ducks’ third loss of the season, that the losses are coming in predictable ways for this season’s team.
“It was the same thing that happened in the other losses this year,” Kent said. “They outworked us and our defensive effort was especially poor. We can’t overlook anybody.”
The Ducks host their first conference opponent, California, Thursday, 5:30 p.m., at Mac Court. The tip-off time was changed recently from 6 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. to accommodate the Oregon Sports Network broadcast of the game.
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