The Oregon men’s basketball team kept its season alive Wednesday night with a 76-69 first-round win over Arizona State (12-19, 4-14 Pac-10) in the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament.
Oregon (15-16, 7-11 Pac-10) will continue on to play second-seeded UCLA (22-9, 13-5 Pac-10) tonight in the second round. The win over Arizona State was particularly satisfying after the Ducks lost to the Sun Devils at home last Thursday.
“It was night and day from the last time we played them,” assistant coach Kevin McKenna told Jerry Allen. “Just our talk, our urgency to find their shooters … our defensive urgency was seriously upgraded in this game.”
Eager to put that March 3 loss behind it, Oregon came out strong in the first half. Junior guard Malcolm Armstead got things started with a three-pointer, and the teams would continue to trade points until the 12:40 mark.
At that point, junior forward Teondre Williams hit a three-pointer to give Oregon an 18-15 advantage. That shot was followed by two more three-pointers from sophomore forward E.J. Singler and senior guard Jay-R Strowbridge. All of a sudden, the Ducks had erupted for a 13-2 run and taken a 24-17 lead.
Arizona State would climb back into the game with an 8-3 run of its own, but Oregon held a 38-29 lead by halftime. The Ducks made seven three-pointers before intermission, shooting an even 50 percent overall from the field.
Singler had 12 first half points, while Strowbridge followed with six points and Williams added five.
The Ducks only grew stronger as the second half began, exploding on a 16-5 run through the first five minutes to take a 54-34 lead. During that stretch, Singler added eight more points to reach a career-high twenty with more than 14 minutes left in the game.
The Sun Devils were not about to go down without a fight, however, and used a 6-0 run of their own to cut the lead to 55-42 with 10:30 remaining.
“They turned up their pressure and we turned it over a little bit and gave into it,” McKenna said. “And they scored 28 points off their turnovers. If we just take care of the ball, it’s a 20-point game.”
Arizona State continued to trim the lead, cutting it to seven with less than a minute remaining, but the Ducks managed to hold on for the victory.
In the end, Oregon had made 11 of its 19 three-point attempts. Singler was responsible for four of those shots from beyond the arc, and finished the game with a career-high 22 points to go along with five rebounds.
“He shot the ball with confidence,” McKenna said. “We got some really good looks, and E.J. was the beneficiary on a few of those.”
Armstead had another balanced effort, totaling 11 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals. Junior guard Garrett Sim added 10 points, while junior forward Tyrone Nared led the team with nine rebounds.
“I thought our guys did some good things on the offensive end,” head coach Dana Altman said to Pac-10.org. “Except for the turnovers, I thought offensively we played pretty well. Our ball movement, our shot selection was good.”
Arizona State, meanwhile, shot 53.6 percent from the field but made just eight of its 27 three-point attempts. Sophomore guard Trent Lockett led the way with 22 points, five rebounds, and five assists, while guards Jamelle McMillan and Rihards Kuksiks each chipped in with 11.
Having lost four straight games coming into Wednesday’s matchup, Oregon was happy to finally come away with a victory.
“We came in wanting to play really aggressive,” Singler said to Pac-10.org. “Coach did a good job switching defenses and getting us ready for this game.”
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