As Oregon walked off the basketball court on Tuesday against Baylor, the Ducks had an uneasy feeling. They played bad in all facets of the game and head coach Dana Altman was thoroughly upset with Oregon’s ball movement.
It came as no surprise Thursday evening when Valparaiso opened up in a zone defense against the Ducks.
This time, things would be different.
Chris Boucher led the way as he totaled game-highs of 25 points, nine rebounds and four blocks to help Oregon bounce back with a 76-54 win.
“His activity allowed him to play so well,” head coach Dana Altman said of Boucher.
“Honestly I think he’s capable of doing this every time,” Jordan Bell added.
Boucher and Bell, Oregon’s two starting bigs, combined for 40 points, 16 rebounds and six blocks, showing how dominant the Ducks can be when they play well down low.
“They’re amazing athletes — I think they’re the best in college basketball,” Peyton Pritchard said of his two big men.”When those guys are going inside, we are a top-five team in the country — everything else is smooth after that.”
Boucher and Bell combined to limit Valparaiso’s Alec Peters to 44 percent shooting, including 25 percent from 3-point territory. Granted Peters still scored 24 points, he did so by taking 18 shots. Peters was held to 4-of-10 shooting in the second half, including a 1-of-5 showing from deep.
“We knew he was the leading scorer and if we took him out of the game, everyone else would struggle because the ball ran through him,” Bell said. “We tried to pressure the ball, not let him get easy catches and double him in the post.”
As starting guards Tyler Dorsey and Dylan Ennis struggled for much of the night, Pritchard picked up the slack. Playing in only his third college game, Pritchard became ever-more comfortable on the court. He finished the game with nine points and a game-high five assists.
Oregon started the game slow from the field, struggling to find any rhythm offensively and defensively. With Valpo leading 14-10 early in the first half, the Ducks went on a 19-6 run over the next eight minutes. The Ducks started to force Valpo into contested shots while using ball movement to get open looks for themselves.
“I thought we were much more focused tonight — energy was way better,” Altman said. “We were more active, knees bent and running the floor — we responded well tonight.”
Oregon came out of the half leading 37-30 and used a stout defense to put the game away. Over the first 10 minutes of the second half, the Ducks limited Valpo to two made buckets, eliminating second chance opportunities by cleaning up on the glass.
A Pritchard 3-pointer was the exclamation point for Oregon as the Ducks opened up a 59-40 lead and never looked back over the final 10 minutes.
Oregon will now travel to Hawaii to take place in the Maui Invitational from November 21-23. At the end of the tournament, the Ducks will have played six games in 13 days over three different time zones, so depth and energy will be huge if Oregon wants to leave Maui as champions.