Perfection is something that’s rarely seen in sports. While there isn’t a basketball equivalent to a perfect game in baseball, what Bryce Taylor did Saturday came pretty close.
Taylor’s 32-point, 11-of-11 shooting performance capped the Ducks’ championship run through the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament, defeating USC 81-57 Saturday and helping the team earn a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament yesterday.
It was Oregon’s first Pac-10 Tournament championship since 2003, which also came against USC.
Taylor didn’t intend to take that many shots, however, but if his teammates were going to give him the opportunity, he was going to take it.
“I used to be a lot more selfish in high school,” Taylor said. “Then I realized if I put other people first, success will come back to me. That could have been anyone else. Today it was just my turn.”
Taylor played 31 minutes and came out of the game with about four minutes remaining, which more likely was coach Ernie Kent’s decision to rest his starter than to preserve Taylor’s perfect shooting night. Kent was proud of Taylor’s defensive performance on the Trojans’ Nick Young, who scored ten points, and was beaming even before he was aware of Taylor’s shooting percentage.
“That’s just amazing,” Kent said. “He’s got the whole package and it was on display tonight.”
Young played against Taylor before the two were conference opponents and has seen a variety of the Oregon guard’s various shooting performances.
“He’s a streaky shooter,” Young said. “It was just one of those nights for him.”
“It was embarrassing,” Young said of the game.
Taylor’s seven three-pointers tied the Pac-10 Tournament record set by Arizona’s Salim Stoudamire in 2005. Oregon’s 14 team 3-pointers were also a tournament record.
Freshman guard Tajuan Porter was named tournament MVP, scoring 61 points in three games, including 16 against the Trojans.
Porter hardly took notice of the game he was having, however, as he and the rest of the Ducks focused on Taylor, making sure he had the ball as he hit shot after shot, no matter whether it was from beyond the arc or on a fast-break dunk.
“We weren’t aware that he hadn’t missed, but we knew he was hot,” Porter said. “We tried to milk him and feed him the ball.”
It was Oregon’s third blowout in the tournament, with the Ducks beating Arizona 69-50 on Thursday and Cal 81-63 on Friday. Previously this season, the Ducks had only one double-digit victory against a conference opponent. When Oregon beat its opponents by an average margin of nearly 20 points, Kent was taken by surprise.
“I never envisioned us blowing teams out like this,” Kent said. “They’re on one of those special rides and hopefully it’s not going to end anytime soon.”
[email protected]