Baby steps.
The Oregon men’s basketball team, in need of a Pacific-10 Conference win after dropping three ofits first four Pac-10 games, took steps back toward greatness with a 79-68 win over Oregon Statein front of a sold-out crowd at McArthur Court on Saturday.
But the steps were small.
The Ducks, wearing their different yellow “alternate” jerseys, came out and played the same — downright sloppily — as they played in their two losses in the Bay Area last weekend. Oregoncommitted 11 turnovers in the first frame and went into the locker room leading 34-31.
“We came out of the gate with intensity and made some mistakes,” Duck head coach Ernie Kent said.”But I didn’t have a problem with that at all.”
“We came out aggressive, but that’s what we needed to do in this game,” said guard Luke Ridnour,who scored 28 points in the game to lead all scorers.
Ridnour took over the game in the second frame, leading the Ducks on a charge that was reminiscentof the preseason runs they used to blow out teams like Kansas and Minnesota.
“If there was a way to get the ball out of Ridnour’s hands…” mused Oregon State coach Jay John,when asked what he would have done differently in the second half. “It seemed like he was eitherfeeding, shooting or shooting free throws.”
Ridnour’s play helped the Ducks go on an 11-4 run midway through the second half to put Oregonahead by 10 points with 7:07 remaining. The Beavers never got within eight points over the rest ofthe contest as the Ducks put the game away.
Oregon State forward Phillip Ricci led the Beavers with 24 points. But Oregon was able to shutdown forward Brian Jackson, Oregon State’s other talented big man, who had nine points and was infoul trouble for much of the game. The Ducks dominated both big men and the rest of the Beaverteam on rebounds, hauling down 42 boards to Oregon State’s 30.
“We’ve talked and talked and talked about the little things,” Kent said. “And they’re doingeverything right, right now.”
Oregon will host Washington on Thursday and Washington State on Saturday as the Ducks continuePac-10 action.
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