Like most students this week, the Oregon men’s basketball players were having to adjust to the back-to-school lifestyle.
It had been a month of sleep, eat and basketball. Now, they had to add getting up early and going to school to the equation.
“We just came off a long break where it was just basketball,” said guard Freddie Jones, who scored 22 points Thursday. “We just weren’t into it tonight. We were kind of out of sync the whole game.”
Well, not exactly the whole game. There was the last four minutes where the Ducks finally found a rhythm and somehow found a way to pull out the victory after trailing 65-58 with 4:36 to play.
The final stat sheet shows that Oregon out-fought California, 76-72, Thursday night in front of 8,504 at McArthur Court. But the real key, the Ducks said, was to fight through their own sluggishness and survive a slowed-down style of play.
“We gutted it through a grind-out game,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said.
Cal entered the game with the best defense in the Pacific-10 Conference. Oregon entered the game with the best offense in the conference.
In the first half, the advantage went to Cal’s defense, which forced the Ducks to play in the half-court and not get out and run as much as they like to. After back-to-back threes by Luke Ridnour and Jones at the 10:26 mark of the half, Oregon did not convert a field goal until a buzzer-beating trey by Anthony Lever evened the score at 30 heading into the break.
“We didn’t play great basketball in the first half and they had a lot to do with it,” Kent said. “They switched a lot and we didn’t do a good job of reading their mismatches.”
The second half appeared to keep going Cal’s way, with the Bears seemingly converting a rally-killing shot each time the Pit started to go crazy.
But then came the last four minutes of the game when Oregon’s defense decided to give Cal a taste of its own medicine.
With 3:57 left, Shantay Legans dribbled it off his leg after tight defense from Ridnour.
With 2:50 to play, Oregon forced Cal into a 35-second violation.
And with 44 seconds left, Cal trailing 70-67, Legans was forced into the corner and threw a desperate pass to mid-court. The ball was tipped by Oregon’s Robert Johnson to Jones, who drove to the hoop, got fouled and knocked down both free throws to up the lead to five.
For good measure, Legans was also pick-pocketed by Ridnour after Jones’ free throws, sending the ball into James Davis’s hands who then made both of his free throws to seal the deal.
Finally, the Ducks expressed, they were able to win a game in the final minutes, with all four of their losses this season being decided in the crucial closing moments.
“That’s a game we probably would have lost last year,” Ridnour said. “We’re starting to grow up a little.”
And with no class on Saturday, the Ducks will be able to sleep in a little before tangling with Stanford in a huge 3 p.m. tilt at Mac Court.