The Oregon men’s basketball team (14-12, 7-7 Pacific-10 Conference) will host California in the team’s second-to-last home game of the season tonight at Matthew Knight Arena.
The Ducks are currently tied for fourth place in the league standings with USC and face a true challenge in Cal (14-13, 7-8 Pac-10), which enters the game fresh off a 76-72 overtime victory against second-place UCLA on Sunday.
“They’re a good team,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “They can throw the ball inside. They’ve got good perimeter players, so I mean, it’s going to be a tough game for us. It’s a tough matchup.”
Cal had dropped four straight to Arizona (107-105), Washington (109-77), Washington State (75-71), and USC (78-75) before the win over UCLA, but a big scoring night from junior guard Jorge Gutierrez sparked the Golden Bears’ overtime thriller.
A native of Chihuahua, Mexico, Gutierrez has improved his offensive game after the loss of four starting seniors this offseason. He was chosen to the Pac-10 all-defensive team in mostly reserve action last year, but as his career-high 34-point outburst against the Bruins last week will show, Gutierrez has emerged as a top player in the conference.
That night, Gutierrez scored nine of his 34 points in the overtime period, to go along with six assists, three rebounds, three steals, while going 11-for-12 from the free-throw line.
When Oregon and Cal met back on Jan. 29, an 85-77 loss for the Ducks, the Golden Bears went to the charity stripe 41 times, the most of any team Oregon has faced this season. Making 30 of those attempts, including 11 by Gutierrez and 19 as a team in the second half, Cal picked up easy points throughout the contest.
“Free throws were a big part of it,” Altman said. “They did a good job at the line; they had a good run in the first half where they really shot the three well.
“I think they hit six threes in the first half and that was (what) really led to a big lead at half.”
While four of Cal’s starters finished the night in double figures, Oregon got its second straight dominant performance from senior post Joevan Catron, who finished the night with 22 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
Junior college transfer Tyrone Nared also had the best game of his Oregon career, scoring 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in his 32 minutes of action. Junior Malcolm Armstead added 16 points and six assists off the bench.
Since that Cal game, the junior has averaged 9.8 points and 6.6 assists per game in reserve action. With Armstead keeping the offense fluid when he enters the game, Oregon doesn’t experience much drop-off when it goes to the bench recently.
“Offensively, we were able to understand what it was that we was needing to get for ourselves, and execute for (Altman) as well,” Armstead said. “We know who can hit shots on our team and where they can hit shots at. So why not put them in situations to make shots, instead of put your teammates in bad situations?”
Altman has stressed making the easy plays and finishing those plays incessantly this season, leading Oregon to the best turnover margin (+3.46) in the conference, a category in which Cal ranks ninth. The Ducks won the turnover battle, 12-15, in the first meeting, but were out-rebounded and gave up 18 second-chance points.
Regardless, Oregon has played with added confidence over the last month, and the results have shown with six wins in the last eight games.
“It was just a matter of you being able to bring that every night,” Armstead said. “‘Cause I mean sometimes you’ll have a bad game and your confidence tends to slip. So it’s a matter of staying focused and being humble at the same time to keep your confidence.”
Tip-time is set for 6 p.m.
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