During the day, they watched — and watched.
At night, they played — and played well.
Knowing what was at stake, the Oregon men’s basketball team thumped Oregon State, 91-62, Saturday night at McArthur Court.
The 17th-ranked Ducks (18-7, 10-4) had been glued to the television throughout the afternoon as Arizona State upset UCLA on the road, Southern California dropped Arizona from its first-place perch and Washington pulled out a 15-point shocker over California.
Then, given the chance to play a game themselves, the Ducks ran all over the Beavers (10-14, 3-11) and jumped into a three-way tie for first with USC and Stanford. The Wildcats are a half-game back, while the Bears and Bruins are each a full game out of first.
“After watching the other teams in the conference, it was important for us to give Oregon State our best effort,” said head coach Ernie Kent, who was a junior playing for the Ducks in 1975-76 when Oregon last reached a 10-4 conference record.
Oregon’s win also continued its dominance over the rival Beavers by winning its seventh straight Civil War and the 17th in the last 18 meetings. The 29-point win tied a 42-13 win in 1921 as the highest margin of victory by Oregon in a Civil War.
Averages held form Saturday night as the Pacific-10 Conference’s highest scoring offense broke free from the league’s lowest one. The Ducks scored about five points more than their 86.3 points-per-game average while the Beavers scored two less than their 64.1 average.
Doing most of the scoring for the Ducks was senior Freddie Jones with a game-high 23, Luke Ridnour with 20 and Luke Jackson with 19.
“When us three score like that, it’s tough for people to defend,” Ridnour said.
“We played our style of basketball for the whole 40 minutes,” Jackson said.
“We’re just out there having fun,” Jones said.
Jones was certainly having fun in one stretch with less than three minutes to play in the first half. First, he skied up for a one-handed offensive rebound and rolled it back in the hoop.
On the next trip down the court, James Davis lofted an alley-oop pass that Jones hauled in with his right hand and emphatically threw down.
The back-to-back athletic efforts came amid a 17-2 Oregon run to close out the first half and give the Ducks a 45-27 lead at the break.
Oregon State had closed to within 28-25 with 6:10 to play in the half after the Ducks had taken an 18-4 lead to open the game.
“They just wanted it more,” said OSU forward Philip Ricci, who led the Beavers with 20 points. “They really dominate at home.”
Oregon’s victory improved its record to 14-0 at Mac Court, which extended its best home record since the Ducks went 16-0 in 1937-38.
In the second half, even with the game reaching blowout status, the Ducks continued to give the sold out crowd of 9,087 something to cheer about.
The Beavers began the half by closing the margin to 15, but that would be the closest they would get the rest of the way.
Oregon proceeded to take leads of 60-32, 73-39 and reached 82-45 after an Anthony Lever three-pointer at the 6:35 mark, which represented the largest lead of the game.

Oregon also outrebounded the Beavers, 36-28, and committed only nine turnovers to OSU’s 17.
“There was some concern about our team bouncing back from two tough losses last week, but we played at a very high intensity level tonight,” Kent said.
The Ducks knew that this three-game homestand was critical in their quest to win the Pac-10 title. They were given time to rest earlier in the week after losing two heartbreaking overtime games in the Bay Area.
So after a refreshed Oregon team took care of the Beavers, it now turns its attention to the cellar-dwelling Washington schools this week in the season’s final games at the Pit.
Should the Ducks win those, they’d be no worse than tied for first heading into a two-game road trip to Los Angeles in the final weekend of the regular season.
“We’re in control of our destiny,” Ridnour said. “We just need to keep winning, especially at home. Our No. 1 goal is to win the Pac-10, and we believe we can do it.”