CORVALLIS — During their morning breakfast, the Oregon Ducks watched early season game tapes from their 10-1 start.
And then at night, they went out and secured the in-state bragging rights with a 69-60 Civil War victory over Oregon State at Gill Coliseum.
“We showed them tapes and it touched my heart,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “That was a tournament team [on video]. It touched their hearts too.”
The videos provided the spark and inspiration that Oregon had lacked for weeks, and helped the Ducks (14-14 overall, 5-13 Pacific-10 Conference) become NIT eligible.
Unfortunately for Oregon, however, the bubble burst as the Ducks’ season officially ended with the news Sunday night that the NIT selection committee left Oregon out of its tournament.
It’s certainly been a season that’s had its fair share of downs and too few ups, but for Oregon, Saturday night’s performance helped ease much of the pain that had built up from losing 13 of the previous 16 games.
“We’re a good team,” said senior forward Bryan Bracey, who had a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds. “We’ve just struggled a bit. We’re just happy we got it all together. It’s a big win.”
As for Oregon State (10-20, 4-14), the 20th loss of the season didn’t sit well with the Beavers, especially after playing solid basketball as of late. Beaver head coach Ritchie McKay was short and to the point in his post-game comments after the final contest of his first season in Corvallis.
“We probably should apologize to the 8,870 Oregon State fans for our effort,” McKay said. “We didn’t have any offense. [Oregon] played with a sense of urgency like they wanted to continue their season. That was the worst effort.
“I never saw it in their eyes.”
That could have been said for either team in the opening minutes of the game, as Oregon was only up 9-3 at the 11:10 mark of the half. Missed shots continued to pile up for both teams, and Oregon entered the half leading 23-19. The Beavers shot 25 percent from the field in the first half while the Ducks managed to shoot just under 30 percent in that time.
“I don’t think we came out flat, we just weren’t playing as smart as we could have been,” Bracey said.
The score remained close during the beginning of the second half, but then the tide took a noticeable turn in the Ducks’ favor when Oregon State forward Brian Jackson fouled out with 11:31 to play. Jackson finished with 10 points.
With Jackson out, Oregon took a 41-31 lead after a Julius Hicks rebound-basket with 10:20 remaining. The Beavers made a late charge and cut to within 54-50 after two Jason Heide free throws at the 2:29 mark, which prompted the Gill Coliseum crowd to rise to its feet in roaring approval.
But then Bracey put up a missed shot and Julius Hicks rebounded it and emphatically threw it down with two hands to help the Ducks put the game away.
“We were only up four and that put us by six,” Bracey said. “That shut up the crowd.”
The Ducks then converted 13 free throws in the final 1:11 to clinch the win.
The victory came a week after the Ducks’ embarrassing 39-point defeat to Arizona. After the loss, Kent knew that his team was fatigued and gave them three days off before practicing for the Civil War.
“It was a week that we put Arizona behind us quickly,” Kent said. “You can’t dwell. I challenged my team. It’s been a long haul, and it’ll be interesting to see if we get into the NIT.”
As Kent would find out less than 24 hours later, however, his team will not be making its third straight postseason appearance despite being the only non-NCAA Tournament team in the Pac-10 that would be eligible to play in the NIT.