The Oregon men fell behind the Pacific-10 Conference first-place Huskies early Saturday and were never able to make up the lost ground, dropping the contest 103-84 to fall to 0-13 in conference play.
“We know we need to win,” said Oregon head coach Ernie Kent. “The adversity of the season is wearing on them, but at the same time, you see them starting to come back. And that tells you about their strength of character going down the road.”
Oregon turned the ball over on each of its first three possessions, leading to a quick 6-0 lead for Washington. A missed shot by Oregon then led to a bucket for Washington freshman Isaiah Thomas for an 8-0 start for the Huskies.
Oregon would whittle that lead to four on a bucket from freshman center Michael Dunigan and a pair of free throws from junior guard Tajuan Porter, but Washington pushed right back. Three-point plays on consecutive possessions by Husky sophomore forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning and senior center Jon Brockman pushed the lead to 10 at 14-4 with just more than five minutes gone in the first half. The Huskies led at halftime 49-25.
Oregon shot 35.5 percent from the field in the first half, including 0-for-9 from beyond the three-point arc. The Ducks turned the ball over 10 times in the half and were outrebounded 20-15.
In the second half Oregon managed to cut into that lead with its best offensive half of the conference season, outscoring Washington 59-54 down the stretch for the final 19-point margin. It was the first time in conference play the Ducks have scored more than 80 points, the last time being an 86-74 win over Long Beach State at McArthur Court on Dec. 29.
Porter led all scorers in the game with 33 points, 27 of them in the second half.
“In the second half, I thought we let our guard down a little bit on the defensive end early, and we allowed them to get in a bit of a rhythm, and it allowed Tajuan Porter to really get going,” said Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar. “The last four games we’ve played against Oregon, Tajuan hasn’t hurt us. We were able to hold them at bay. Once they got an offensive rhythm, and he got going, man, he went crazy.”
Oregon went 10-for-17 in the second half from beyond the arc after its horrendous long-range shooting in the first and got four players into double figures in the game with Porter, sophomore guard LeKendric Longmire (16 points), Dunigan (14 points, 8 rebounds) and freshman guard Garrett Sim (11 points).
Like their coach, Washington players after the game blamed themselves for the Ducks’ second half offensive surge, questioning their own focus with the 24-point halftime lead.
“We gave them life,” said
Washington senior guard Justin Dentmon. “If we want to be champion, we can’t play bad defense in the second half. We have to finish games out, just like a champion would.”
Washington had four players score more than 20 points. Thomas led the Huskies with 24, followed by Dentmon and Brockman with 21 points each, to which Brockman added a game-high 18 rebounds. Junior forward Quincy Pondexter added 20 points.
“I think it really shows we can attack from different areas and we have a lot of different guys who can put the ball in the hoop,” Brockman said. “Instead of doing the one-on-one thing, trying to take on the other team by yourself, we’re passing it around. We’ll pass up an open look to give someone else an even better look. It all pays off in the long run.”
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