The dichotomy was obvious as senior guard Jay-R Strowbridge and freshman guard Johnathan Loyd sat side by side at the podium after Oregon’s 88-71 loss to Stanford on Saturday. One was playing his final home game in an eventful collegiate career; the other was just 19 years old, with many more games at Matthew Knight Arena in his future.
In the end, both could certainly agree on one thing: Oregon was outhustled Saturday.
“We’ve lost our edge, and we need to get it back,” Loyd said. “We need to play with a chip on our shoulder.”
Oregon (14-14, 7-9 Pacific-10 Conference) was overwhelmed by tough defense and long-range shooting from Stanford (14-14, 7-10 Pac-10). Yet, head coach Dana Altman agreed that the team’s demeanor on the court was most problematic.
“It didn’t look like we had the same energy that we’ve played with,” Altman said. “We looked a step slow on everything.”
Feeding off of the home crowd, the Ducks got off to an energetic 8-0 start in the game’s opening minutes. Stanford, however, quickly rebounded and fought back to take a 21-18 lead at the 10-minute mark of the first half.
Oregon struggled to put the ball in the hoop, and went more than four minutes without a field goal. Junior point guard Malcolm Armstead finally made a three-pointer at the two-minute mark to cut the Cardinal’s lead to 36-32, but Stanford responded with a 7-2 run to close the half with a 43-34 advantage.
Oregon had already compiled seven turnovers at the intermission, and Stanford had 14 points off of those giveaways. The Cardinal also put together a blistering 54.8 percent performance from the field in the first half, including four three-pointers.
Nothing Stanford had done came as any surprise . They simply had not taken care of business.
“We knew what we had to do,” Loyd said. “But we didn’t execute on either side of the ball.”
Things only became worse in the second half, as the Cardinal continued to shoot at a high rate while Oregon never seemed to find a consistent rhythm. Stanford scored the first six points of the half, part of a 10-2 opening run.
Down 53-36, Oregon never truly recovered.
Stanford forward Josh Owens continued to dominate the paint, building off of his 17 first-half points. The Ducks had no answer for him on defense, and his four blocks played a key role in shutting down Oregon’s paint presence.
“He was a beast in the middle,” Loyd said. “He rebounded a lot, got a double-double and was playing harder than we were. Their whole team was playing harder than we were.”
With 9:53 remaining, a three-pointer from Armstead brought Oregon back to within 13. Yet, Stanford continued to respond with jump shots of its own, and the team’s collective hot hand never seemed to cool down.
The lead soon ballooned to 20, though the final margin ended up being 17, as Stanford came away with the 88-71 victory.
Owens scored 14 points in the second half to finish with a career-high 31 along with 11 rebounds.
Stanford center Dwight Powell also finished with a double-double, compiling 11 points and 11 rebounds to go along with three blocked shots. For Altman, the Cardinal’s length proved to be a key difference-maker in disrupting Oregon’s offense.
“They got the eight blocked shots,” Altman said. “And that definitely changed the game and turned it around a little bit, no doubt.”
Perhaps the most significant disparity on the final statistics sheet came in the form of field goal percentage. The Ducks shot just 36.7 percent from the floor, while Stanford finished at 59.3 percent.
In Strowbridge’s eyes, it was a sign that the Ducks had abandoned their defensive mindset.
“Before we started winning all these games, we would score points and lock down defensively,” Strowbridge said. “I felt as if we kind lost our identity, just scoring points and not really realizing that we’re giving the other team easy baskets.”
With two more games remaining on the schedule, Altman can only look forward.
“We’ve just gotta take tomorrow off, and come back Monday and go back to work,” Altman said. “It was not a good performance.”
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Cardinal sins lead to Oregon’s demise against Stanford
Daily Emerald
February 26, 2011
Michael Ciaglo
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