The shots just weren’t falling — again.
In the final Oregon men’s basketball game at historic McArthur Court, the Ducks’ horrid shooting woes plagued a team hungry for its first conference win of the season.
Oregon (7-7, 0-2 Pacific-10 Conference) put up a tough fight against an exceptionally athletic Arizona State squad, but the Sun Devils (8-5, 1-1 Pac-10) proved to be too much down the stretch. The loss was Oregon’s fourth consecutive defeat; its last win came Dec. 13 over Jacksonville State.
“We had a hard time scoring again,” first-year Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “We had a number of open looks from three we didn’t hit.”
In the opening half the Ducks were held to 8 of 26 (30.8 percent) shooting from the field, though Arizona State’s 11 of 32 mark (34.4 percent) was not much better. Oregon held the rebounding edge during the first half but turned the ball over nine times, with only three assists.
Both offenses were choppy throughout the opening 20 minutes, but Arizona State was able to get some separation to take a 28-24 lead into intermission.
It was clear from the beginning that Arizona State had learned from Oregon’s offensive struggles over the past week, and forced the young Duck team to play primarily from the perimeter.
Senior forward Joevan Catron — Oregon’s most consistent inside scoring threat — was held to just six shots from the field and had six turnovers after seeing a double team nearly every time he had the basketball.
“They were doubling him pretty hard. Obviously that was the focal point of their defense,” Altman said. “People are going to step back and give us some perimeter shots and double Joevan every time he touches it.”
The Sun Devils did just that.
Oregon’s offensive struggles in the backcourt translate on paper, as Malcolm Armstead (2 for 8), Johnathan Loyd (0 for 2), Jay-R Strowbridge (2 for 7), and Garrett Sim (1 for 6) each had difficult shooting nights.
The Sun Devils came out in the second half with a 64.7 percent shooting effort from the field. Despite its poor defense, Oregon fought its way back and eventually held a five-point lead midway through the second half.
Arizona State didn’t let the Ducks get comfortable with their lead, as Brandon Dunson and Carrick Felix sparked a nine-point run to put Arizona State back on top. Dunson, a junior transfer from Wabash Community College, had only seen action in eight games on the year, scoring just 2.3 points per outing. The junior had a career night offensively, scoring 14 points and grabbing three rebounds with two assists.
Felix, a 6’6″ sophomore guard from the College of Southern Idaho, stepped into the starting lineup for just the third time all year in place of Arizona State’s leading scorer Trent Lockett, who was sidelined with a sprained toe. Felix was the dominant athlete on the floor, scoring 19 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists in 34 minutes of action.
“Both of those guys’ athleticism hurt us,” Altman said. “They are two very good athletes who drove the ball at us and created a lot with their athleticism.
“Their numbers didn’t indicate they were going to play that well, but they sure did.”
Sophomore E.J. Singler led the way for Oregon with 19 points and nine rebounds. With the Ducks down 56-55 late in the game, Singler had an opportunity to take back the lead with a set play out of a time out, but a good look at the hoop rimmed out.
He would get another chance down 58-55 with 15 seconds remaining, but that shot also would not find the bottom of the net.
“The first one felt good, but I shot it a little long,” Singler said. “I forced the second one a little bit.”
Despite another loss and a sour Mac Court farewell to the 7,165 fans in attendance, Singler said he is confident the shooting woes will turn around.
“We haven’t been shooting it well for the past three games,” Singler said. “But I think we have a lot of good shooters on our team and I think we’re going to start shooting a lot better soon.”
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