It wasn’t senior day on Saturday, but when Dana Altman looked out at the court during Oregon’s 82-63 victory over Oregon State, he couldn’t help but feel proud of the two oldest members of the team. It was the last Civil War for both Joevan Catron and Jay-R Strowbridge, and they made the most of it.
“I’m just so glad to see that,” Altman said. “The Pit Crew, the students, the fans, to have a full house and see those two seniors having fun and playing — it was a lot of fun for our guys.”
Oregon (14-12, 7-7) boosted itself to fourth place in the Pac-10 standings, while Oregon State (9-16, 4-10) continued to slide with its fourth straight loss.
Though the excitement was palpable before tipoff, the game got off to a slow start. Nearly three minutes passed before either team scored, with Oregon State guard Jared Cunningham finally breaking the drought with a jump shot at the 17:19 mark.
The Ducks didn’t truly get rolling until the 14-minute mark, when Malcolm Armstead drained a three-pointer to give them a 7-6 lead. Teondre Williams followed with consecutive threes of his own, and Oregon was off and running.
The Ducks scored 20 points in just over four minutes, taking a 27-10 lead in the process. The onslaught continued until Oregon State made a late first half run to cut Oregon’s lead to 37-27. When the buzzer sounded for intermission, Oregon led 42-29.
The second half also began with a thud, as Oregon struggled with turnovers and the Beavers climbed back in with a 7-2 run. It took nearly four minutes for the Ducks to score, and the crowd began to get restless as the lead was cut to eight.
“Our hands weren’t active. Our feet weren’t going. They were beating us on dribble penetration,” Altman said.
It was then when Strowbridge effectively took over the game.
The senior hit three consecutive
three-pointers to push Oregon’s advantage back to 14. Junior forward Tyrone Nared and sophomore forward E.J. Singler followed with their own shots from beyond the arc, and to top it off, Strowbridge made another. In all, the Ducks had made six consecutive three-pointers and took a commanding 20-point lead.
All the while, the Beavers remained in their patented 1-3-1 zone defense. For Singler, that was no surprise.
“That’s their staple,” Singler said. “I know that their coach lives by that, and they’ve had success in that zone. Sometimes with such a different kind of zone like that, you can exploit it, and we did that today.”
In the end, the Beavers would not recover from the Ducks’ three-point barrage. When the final horn sounded, the Ducks had hit 13 three-pointers on 50 percent shooting from beyond the arc. Oregon turned the ball over 11 times while forcing Oregon State into 19 giveaways, and created 24 points off of those turnovers.
“I thought our activity was pretty good,” Altman said. “I thought we got them spread out a little bit. A lot of those turnovers were guys doubling down on the post and knocking it out.”
The real star of the show, of course, was Strowbridge. He finished with a career-high 26 points and six three-pointers, shooting 10 for 16 overall.
“I hit one and just starting getting going,” Strowbridge said. “And just kept shooting.”
Many of those shots came off of assists from Armstead, who also had a career high with 13. In all, the Ducks had 19 assists on 25 field goals, and Altman pointed the praise toward Armstead.
“It started with Malcolm,” Altman said. “He really got things going and made a lot of good plays for guys.”
Singler also chipped in with 13 points and 7 rebounds, while Catron added 13, as well.
With the win, Oregon swept the Civil War for the first time since the 2007-08 season.
“Feels great,” Singler said. “Especially at home, it feels really good. I thought we played really well tonight.”
Just four games remain on Oregon’s schedule, and the players can’t help but look forward to a possible postseason berth.
“I think we have a momentum now,” Singler said. “And we’re going to get through these last couple games and go into the (Pac-10) tourney in L.A., and anything can happen down there. We’re looking to get to either the NCAA tournament or the NIT tournament.”
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