SPOKANE, Wash. – There was a little bit more celebration in the Oregon locker room this time.
And why not?
After struggling in the opening-round game and having to hang on for a 58-56 victory against 14th-seeded Miami (Ohio) on Friday, the Ducks punched their ticket to St. Louis and the Sweet 16 in impressive fashion with a 75-61 victory against upset-minded Winthrop at Spokane Arena on Sunday.
“For us to get all the way to the Sweet 16 says a lot about our character and where we’re at,” Oregon forward Maarty Leunen said.
Leunen and the rest of the Ducks admitted there was a chip on their shoulder Sunday after hearing talk of Winthrop being this year’s Cinderella team after the Eagles upset Notre Dame in the first round.
“I think they were a little bit frustrated looking at the TV and hearing people say Oregon doesn’t defend and Winthrop’s going to win,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. “They kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Well, wait a minute, look at our games, look at our stats.’ This is a very, very good defensive team.”
The Ducks hoped they proved some doubters wrong with their latest performance.
“That team that you saw against Miami (of Ohio) was not Oregon,” senior point guard Aaron Brooks said. “That’s not our team. I think a lot of people were looking at that and thought that’s what we’re about and forgot the games that came before that. Now maybe they can talk about this game.”
Guard Bryce Taylor said: “Everybody was watching TV last night seeing all the analysts saying that we were going to lose. That was extra motivation for us.”
The Ducks certainly looked much more comfortable and poised Sunday and used a combination of hot shooting and pressure defense to build its second-half lead to as much as 19 before coasting to their eighth straight victory of the season – dashing the hopes of a Winthrop team hoping to be the last remaining double-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament.
But Oregon forced 15 Winthrop turnovers and held the Eagles to 39.3 percent shooting including 8 for 31 from beyond the arc while 6-foot-10-inch center Craig Bradshaw, who scored 24 points in the opening round, was held to 10 points against Oregon’s switching defense.
“I thought defensively we were just outstanding today and we’ve been outstanding now in our last seven games,” Kent said. “They’re kind of riding that wave right now.”
The Eagles had just one field goal and six turnovers in the final 5:44 of the first half as Oregon turned a 27-23 deficit into a 33-29 lead at halftime. In that stretch and in to the second half, the Eagles missed 14 straight three-point attempts.
“We talked about coming and proving we can play defense,” Brooks said.
Mission accomplished, and when they did that the offense caught fire in the second half, especially early, and all the momentum shifted to the Ducks and an Oregon-dominated crowd in attendance.
After being slowed down by the Miami tempo on Friday, the Ducks posted 16 more shot attempts against Winthrop and finished with 27-of-56 shooting (48.2 percent) for the game including 11 of 23 from behind the arc.
“I think our ability hit the long-range shot…that kind of breaks teams’ backs because they feel like they’re giving their best defensive effort and then somebody will step up and knock a few down in a row,” Taylor said. “That’s tough for a team.”
And if it wasn’t the steady Brooks hitting from the outside, it was freshman sharpshooter Tajuan Porter, who had 11 points in the first four minutes of the second half to help break the game open and give Oregon its first double-digit lead of the game. Winthrop closed the gap to nine with 13:33 to play but Brooks hit back-to-back three pointers and Oregon was never threatened the rest of the way.
Four starters scored in double figures led by 22 points from Brooks, 14 from Porter, 13 from Malik Hairston, and 12 from Leunen.
“That’s the beauty of our team,” Taylor said. “Everyone can shoot the ball, everyone can step up.”
Sunday it equated to a relatively easy victory for the Ducks and a trip to the Sweet 16, the first since a 2002 run to the Elite 8. Oregon will face seventh-seeded UNLV, which defeated second-seeded Wisconsin 74-68 earlier Sunday.
“Sweet 16, this is what you play for,” Taylor said. “But for me, I’m just keeping everything in perspective. We have a good enough team to go all the way.”
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