Oregon suffered another poor offensive performance Thursday night, shooting 36.7 percent from the field and turning the ball over 20 times in an 84-67 loss to the Washington Huskies (12-4 overall, 3-1 Pacific-10 Conference) at McArthur Court.
Oregon’s guards were badly outplayed by their Husky counterparts, as 15 of the team’s 20 turnovers came from the three guards: junior Tajuan Porter (3), freshman Garrett Sim (4) and sophomore Kamyron Brown (8). The trio combined for just seven assists to offset the careless ball-handling. Washington would capitalize off of Oregon turnovers to the tune of 16 fast break points to Oregon’s four.
“When you end up with your three point guards with 15 of your 20 turnovers … you’re probably not going to beat a lot of people,” said Oregon head coach Ernie Kent. “You can’t fault the big guys because I thought they did a pretty good job, on the glass and offensively.”
Oregon (6-11, 0-5) trailed by as many as eight early but came back to down just three at the half, 40-37, despite giving the Huskies 16 points off of 12 turnovers.
Oregon vs. Washington State
– | Oregon’s matchup against Washington State, 11 a.m. Saturday, will be Oregon’s sixth chance at its first Pacific-10 Conference win after losing its fifth consecutive conference game Thursday against Washington. “It just makes the magnitude of the Washington (State) game bigger,” Kent said of Thursday’s loss. “They’re all big games for us because we need wins. And not only do we need wins, but we want to get better and we want to clean up things and play better basketball.” Washington State has won the last three games in the series, the latest a 75-70 win over Oregon in last season’s Pac-10 tournament. Oregon will need to find another gear offensively in this game, as the Cougars lead the conference in scoring defense, three-point field goal percentage defense and field goal percentage defense, allowing their opponents just 51.4 points per game. |
“I thought it was really similar to a few other games we’ve played where we’ve played really good in the first half,” Kent said. “I thought we did a good job of coming back and closing out the first half and we dominated them on the boards.”
“In the first half we’re sticking in there but we’ve got to put together two halves,” said Oregon junior forward Joevan Catron, who led the Ducks in scoring (12 points) and rebounding (10) in his first double-double in conference play. “We put together two halves and we’ll get our first win. Until then we’ll keep struggling.”
Washington freshman guard Isaiah Thomas hit a three from the left corner to start off the second half for the Huskies and would go on to lead all scorers with 23 points in the game along with six rebounds, three assists and three steals. His backcourt partner, senior Justin Dentmon, chipped in 22 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals.
“I thought our guards really did a very good job both offensively and defensively,” said Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar. “They were intense the entire time. They were focused.”
Porter hit a three from the right wing to pull back to within three at 45-42 but a 10-2 run by the Huskies, capped by a pair of Thomas free throws, would put Washington up 11 at 55-44.
Oregon got within nine at 60-51, but turnovers and missed layups would doom the Ducks to fall behind by as many as 18 before settling for the final 17-point margin.
It was the Ducks’ fourth double-digit defeat in five Pacific-10 Conference games, the lone exception a nine-point defeat at the hands of the UCLA Bruins.
“We have mental lapses in games, be it by a freshman or a veteran, we’re having mental lapses … I feel like we keep shooting ourselves in the foot,” Kent said. “I feel like they are fixable things and my job is to fix them and stay with this team, keep pushing them and get them better.”
Romar, for one, has no doubts about Oregon improving before the next time the teams meet.
“I’m grateful we were able to play Oregon here at this point in the season as opposed to later on in the year because they are just going to continue get better,” he said. “We feel they are a dangerous team.”
Oregon hosts Washington State on Saturday, 11 a.m. at McArthur Court.
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