An emphasis on defense and rebounding in practice all week paid off for the Oregon basketball team as the Ducks cruised past Idaho State 77-51 at McArthur Court in their season opener Friday night.
Oregon held Idaho State to 15 first-half points and doubled the Bengals up on rebounds 50 to 25.
“When you look out on that floor and see the expression on their faces and how hard they defended in the first half and stopping a team on 25 out of 31 opportunities, that’s impressive,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “Especially with a young team this early on.”
To help out on the boards after being outrebounded by a Western Oregon team last week that didn’t have a player over 6-foot-7, the Ducks set goals for themselves before the game for each player to get a certain amount of rebounds.
“We had the coaches on the sidelines telling us the rebounding totals,” Oregon’s Ian Crosswhite, who led the team with nine rebounds, said. “They made sure to tell us how many we needed to get (to reach our total).”
Oregon’s 26-point victory was led by a balanced scoring attack. The Ducks had four players in double figures with Crosswhite and 17-year-old freshman Malik Hairston leading the team with 15 points a piece.
The flashiest two points for Hairston came in the first half when he juked two Idaho State players and drove baseline for a reverse lay-in.
“That’s just creativity,” Kent said about the play. “That’s nothing we can coach. Guys understand when they have to make that kind of move and he made it.”
Hairston’s 15 points was the most by an Oregon freshman in a first game since Terek Brown’s 26 against Hawaii-Hilo in 1995.
Along with Hairston’s 15 points, fellow freshman Bryce Taylor dropped in 11 points, including three three-pointers.
Kent cautions that despite the freshmen’s success early on, everybody needs to let them develop.
“This is a young team and the fans just need to be parents and watch them grow and enjoy them,” Kent said. “We don’t need to put too much pressure on them. I’ll handle all the expectations.”
Despite Kent’s forewarnings about the freshmen, Hairston said they weren’t too nervous about it being their first game.
“We wanted to get (the games) started and basketball is basketball,” Hairston said. “I understand it is a higher level, but we came to play and that’s why we are here.”
The Ducks jumped out in the first half and never relinquished the lead the entire game.
They used a 10-0 run to close out the first half, capped off
by sophomore Aaron Brooks’ assist to freshman Chamberlain Oguchi for a lay in and a 34-15 lead at the break.
The run started when junior Brandon Lincoln followed a
Hairston miss with a two-handed slam dunk to give the Ducks a
10-point lead. Lincoln finished with seven points.
While the second half wasn’t as good defensively for the Ducks, offensively they played better and shot 48.5 percent from the field, compared with 39.4 percent in the first half.
Brooks — who scored 13 points, dished out a career-high eight
assists and didn’t commit a turnover — said a lot of their first-half troubles were attributed to first-game jitters.
“In the beginning of the game everyone was so hyped to play and making careless passes,” Brooks said. “We settled down and got into a rhythm and started to go.”

[email protected]