The youthful Oregon men’s basketball team received a lesson in staying focused Sunday.
The Ducks squeaked past a feisty Western Oregon team 66-58 during their final exhibition game at McArthur Court.
The Wolves — a Division II team — grabbed a 58-57 lead on a rebound basket by Ryan Fiegi with 3 minutes and 45 seconds remaining. Oregon answered with a 9-0 run to close the game, including seven consecutive points from point guard Aaron Brooks.
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent attributed the closeness of the game to the Ducks’ inability to remain focused from possession to possession. He added, however, that Oregon will benefit from having played in a close game.
“It was a great game for us to play,” Kent said. “It was a tight ball game. We had not drilled a lot on late-game situations. Obviously, we better do quite a bit of that because that’s what this team (will look like) through the course of a year, as opposed to blowing people out by 20 or 30 points.
“This team is really going to have to grind out wins.”
Western Oregon slowed the tempo of the game to a grinding pace with a ball-control style of offense. The Wolves let the shot clock tick under 10 seconds during the majority of their possessions in order to hinder Oregon’s up-tempo style of play.
Western Oregon took the lead for the first time at the 3:46 mark of the first half when a three-pointer from Fiegi put the Wolves up 25-22. Brooks answered seconds later with a three-pointer from the left wing to tie it.
Forward Evan Kieling put Western Oregon back on top 27-25 during its following possession with a jump shot from the left corner, but Brooks answered once again by sprinting back to the left wing and drilling another three-pointer to give Oregon a 28-27 lead.
The teams ended the first half in a 32-32 tie.
“We came out kind of flat on offense,” said Brooks, who finished with a game-high 21 points in 35 minutes. “They took the air out of the ball, ran a lot of half-court sets and we didn’t get a lot of transition buckets. (The game) was definitely more challenging than we would have liked.”
Despite not having a player listed taller than 6-foot-7, Western Oregon battled inside and outrebounded the Ducks 29-26. The Ducks were limited to 18 points in the paint and were hounded by a pack of scrappy Wolves every time they touched the ball.
Freshman guard Malik Hairston finished with 15 points and five rebounds, while junior forward Ian Crosswhite added 11 points and grabbed six boards.
Junior point guard Kevin Tyner led the Wolves with 18 points, connecting on 5 of 10 field goals.
“Our coaches always talk about playing with poise,” Tyner said. “We just wanted to compete. We had fun.”

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