Toward the end of Sunday’s Oregon-Arizona State men’s basketball matchup, McArthur Court was rocking hard, bringing back memories of last season’s last-second Ducks victory against the Sun Devils.
This year, though, the fans were only cheering because they wanted the Ducks to keep Arizona State under 100 points.
The Sun Devils (10-10 overall, 2-7 Pacific-10 Conference) obliterated the Ducks (12-7, 3-6), 99-72, in a game Oregon head coach Ernie Kent called “the worst loss I’ve ever been associated with.”
The defeat was the worst for the Ducks at Mac Court since a 92-60 loss at the hands of Arizona in 1993. The blowout came three days after Oregon upset No. 7 Arizona, 79-67, on the same floor.
“We were shut down,” Kent said. “Mentally and physically.”
The Ducks started the game by missing five of their first six shots, and committed two turnovers in the first four minutes of action. Sloppy play on both ends of the floor kept the game close until Arizona State started to pull away with 10 minutes left in the first half.
With 9:30 on the clock, ASU’s Kyle Dodd hit a three-pointer to put the Sun Devils up 22-18. That shot started a six-minute stretch when Arizona State hit seven straight shots, while Oregon went 5-for-12. The Sun Devils carried that momentum into halftime, along with a 48-38 lead.
“At halftime, we discussed picking up our intensity,” Oregon forward Luke Jackson said.
But the Ducks weren’t able to match the Sun Devils’ hot shooting in the second half, as ASU came out of the break just as hot as it went into it. The Sun Devils opened the second frame with a 21-4 run over four minutes, and the blowout was sealed.
Arizona State’s Awvee Storey, who led all scorers with 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, said the Sun Devils wanted to avenge last year’s “Miracle at Mac Court.”
“Last year hurt a lot,” Storey said. “We had that in the back of our heads today.”
Members of the Oregon bench looks on as the Sun Devils run away with the 27-point victory at Mac Court Sunday afternoon.
Oregon’s defense, which held Arizona to 35 percent shooting Thursday night, allowed ASU nearly twice that on Sunday. The Sun Devils hit 62 percent of their shots, well above their season average of 44 percent.
“Defensively, we were just flat-out horrible,” Kent said. “We had no energy, no toughness.”
The Ducks’ lack of defense may have had to do with Chris Christoffersen. “The Great Dane” had been a spark in the past few games, but only played four minutes Sunday because of a jammed thumb he suffered in practice Saturday.
The win completed the Sun Devils’ sweep of the Oregon schools, after they had been 0-7 in the Pac-10.
“Our team was focused,” Arizona State coach Rob Evans said. “We’re gathering confidence.”
Arizona State moved out of the Pac-10’s cellar heading into the conference’s midway point. The Sun Devils are now tied with Oregon State for eighth in the conference.
On the other side of the ball, Oregon’s hopes for a trip to the NCAA Tournament took a blow after the blowout.
“We took a step backwards,” Kent said.
After Thursday’s win, which Kent called a “breakthrough game,” the Ducks thought the momentum of their season had shifted. Now, it seems, Oregon will need a strong second half to make the Big Dance.
“We’ve just got to come together as a team,” Oregon guard Freddie Jones said.
The Ducks held on to fifth place in the Pac-10 after the weekend’s action, but slipped three games behind California and Southern California, both 6-3 in the conference.
Oregon will host Stanford and California this weekend, before traveling to the Washington schools the following week.
