The Ducks waddled out the gates and struggled to flap their wings.
Oregon’s 3-pointer is usually reliable, but the team was shooting 1-of-9 from behind the 3-point line with under four minutes to go in the first half. In the second half, Payton Pritchard and Dylan Ennis hit back-to-back triples as the No. 13-ranked Ducks began to flap their wings en route to a 71-70 win over visiting Arizona State on Thursday at Matthew Knight Arena.
“We didn’t have a good rhythm offensively in the first half,” head coach Dana Altman said. “[We] took some bad threes. It kind of threw our rhythm off offensively … so [I’m] disappointed in the way we played offensively in the first half.”
Oregon finished the night at 8-of-23 from behind the arc.
The Ducks started to find their groove in the second half through Dillon Brooks, Jordan Bell and Ennis, but the Sun Devils kept it close. Arizona State would not go away and the Ducks struggled to take over the game.
“We knew we couldn’t drop two in a row, especially at home,” Brooks said. “This is a tough team and we knew this was a tough team. We knew we had to make plays for each other.”
Tyler Dorsey got some points for Oregon in the final seven minutes of the game to help the Ducks stay ahead of the the Sun Devils’ charge.
After several important buckets with around five minutes remaining, Matthew Knight Arena erupted. The crowd of 11,901 quieted moments later after Arizona State drained buckets on the other end of the court.
With 3:37 to play, a Sun Devils 3-pointer gave the visitors a 60-59 lead.
Both teams began exchanging buckets with the score bouncing back-and-forth. With 1:35 remaining, the score was tied at 66.
That’s when Brooks took over.
“My teammates kept giving me confidence and coach said to take what ever shot you’d like,” Brooks said.
Scoring 3-pointers and midrange jump shots, Brooks gave Oregon a 71-66 lead. Arizona State fought back and with two missed free throws from Pritchard, the score was 71-70 with two seconds on the clock with Ducks in possession.
Oregon held on and extended its home-win streak to 39 games, avoiding a second consecutive loss after the Ducks lost in Boulder.
“It’s a 31-game schedule,” Altman said. “I just tell the team that 10 games we don’t shoot very well, 10 games we probably shoot average and 10 we probably shoot better than we should. It’s going to be tough to turn around and get our energy back for Saturday.”
That Saturday game has already garnered plenty of attention. No. 5 Arizona visits Eugene in what is sure to be a high intensity, wire-to-wire game between the conference’s top two teams.
“It’s going to be a tough game like UCLA,” Bell said, alluding to the Ducks’ win over then-ranked No. 2 UCLA earlier this season. “The fans are going to be here, there’s going to be a lot of energy and emotion.”
The Wildcats beat Oregon State 71-54 on Thursday and enter Saturday undefeated in conference play.
“[We’re not ready] tonight,” Altman said. “They’re a very good team so we’ll have to play our A-game. There’s no doubt about it.”
Follow Shawn Medow on Twitter @ShawnMedow