On Thursday night, the No. 15 Oregon men’s basketball team served up treys like they were manning the cafeteria lunch-line.
Of the 12 Ducks who saw court time in Oregon’s 115-77 blowout win over Washington State, eight made three-pointers as the Ducks sank a school-record 16 treys to crush the Cougars and stay on top of the Pacific-10 Conference race.
“We were just on fire out there, it was great,” said junior forward Robert Johnson, who, when asked why he never attempted a three, said “I thought about it.”
Oregon (19-7 overall, 11-4 Pac-10) got its 15th consecutive win at McArthur Court over Washington State (5-19, 1-15) in front of 9,050 fans. The victory moved the Ducks one step closer to an undefeated home season, setting up a key final home matchup with Washington on Saturday.
Oregon was led by sophomore point guard Luke Ridnour, who drained a career-high 25 points. Freddie Jones added 18 points as five Ducks scored in double figures. But Oregon’s shooting as a team was the most impressive statistic from Thursday night’s contest. The Ducks set season highs for field goal shooting (63 percent), three-point shooting (61.5 percent) and free-throw shooting (92.9 percent).
Oregon’s 115 points were its most ever in a Pac-10 game and tied for third-most in Duck history.

“We just got in a really good rhythm out there,” Ridnour said. “We played together as a team and just had fun with it.”
Washington State wasn’t completely invisible Thursday night. The Cougars hung around Mac Court for about seven minutes before disappearing. With 13 minutes left in the first half, Freddie Jones partially blocked Washington State’s Marcus Moore, and Ridnour hit a long jump shot on the break to put Oregon ahead 15-13. From there, the Ducks went on a 24-10 run, and the Cougars never got back into the contest.
Moore provided Washington State’s lone highlight Thursday night. After scoring 35 points against Oregon in January, he notched 34 on Thursday.
With 3:48 left, Jones wowed the crowd with one of his trademark dunks, after Johnson grabbed a steal and passed all the way down court to a streaking Jones. The senior guard threw down a reverse two-hander that simply rocked the Pit.
Ridnour closed out the first half with a flourish of his own, scoring seven straight points to give Oregon a 54-33 halftime lead. After hitting two free throws, Ridnour blocked Thomas Kelati from behind and hit a pretty reverse lay-in on the other end. On the next possession, he hit a three pointer on a fast break.
“We happened to be really hot tonight,” Jones said. “We just got out to a big lead and never really looked back.”
The second half featured the three-point avalanche that buried the Cougars even more. At one point, the Ducks hit eight treys in a seven-minute stretch.
Even 6-foot-10 Mark Michaelis hit a three.
6-foot-9 Jay Anderson hit a pair of threes.
Those two players had shot a combined 4-for-13 from three-point land this season before Thursday night. They went 3-for-4 against Washington State.
Michaelis, who played 13 minutes, and Anderson, who played eight, joined other bench players in logging quality minutes during Thursday’s contest. Ben Lindquist played 13 minutes and super sub Kristian Christensen notched three minutes of playing time. All 12 Ducks who played scored at least one basket.
“I was happy for them,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said of his subs. “They got out there, played hard and played well.”
With other teams in the Pac-10 beating up on each other Thursday night, the Ducks emerged as co-leaders of the conference. USC toppled Stanford, 77-58, to move into a tie with Oregon for the conference lead. California beat UCLA to remain in the hunt for the conference championship.
Those contenders will battle more on Saturday, so Oregon again faces a must-win game against Washington. The Huskies beat the Ducks in Seattle, 97-92, in January. Oregon and Washington will square off at 7 p.m. Saturday.