Oregon seniors Luke Jackson, James Davis and Jay Anderson finally got what they have been waiting for the past three years; a win in Arizona State’s Wells Fargo Arena.
Oregon (9-4 overall, 4-2 Pacific-10 Conference) pulled out the 83-76 victory over the Sun Devils for its first win on the road in Tempe since the 1999-2000 season.
The Ducks did everything they needed to from the very beginning and held off the Sun Devils when they made a strong run later.
“It was a huge win to come down here where we haven’t had a lot of success,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent told KUGN (590 AM) radio after the game. “They executed perfectly in this ball game.”
Oregon’s game plan was to contain Arizona State’s Ike Diogu, who entered the game as the conference’s leading scorer with 23.1 points per game.
In the first seven minutes, Oregon doubled down on Diogu whenever he touched the ball and forced him to play defense. Diogu got two fouls early and had to sit on the bench for almost three minutes.
It wasn’t until the 6:30 mark in the first half that Diogu got his first two points. By that time, freshman Mitch Platt, who finished with a career-high 13 points, had his game going and Oregon led 28-16.
It looked as if Oregon was going to pull away at one point, but Diogu managed to get his shots to fall.
After 20 minutes, Oregon had a 34-28 lead and Jackson looked to be on his way to his third triple-double of his career with 10 points, nine assists and five rebounds.
“In the first half we were outstanding,” Kent said.
In the second half, the teams matched points throughout as Arizona State made its run. The Sun Devils had managed to pull off a win in the second half after overcoming a 14-point deficit for the 100-85 win against USC Saturday.
Jackson came out scoring eight of Oregon’s 12 points to start the half. He finished the game with 21 points, seven rebounds and a career-high 12 assists.
Davis then got hot, scoring Oregon’s next eight points with two three-pointers, pushing Oregon to the 54-50 lead. Davis finished the game with 15 points and three assists.
Arizona State just kept coming. Junior guard Steve Moore hit back-to-back three-pointers — one being a four-point play off a foul — for the Sun Devils to give them a 60-56 lead.
It was the Sun Devils’ first lead since being ahead by one point in the first few minutes of the game.
Senior guard Andre Joseph came on when he had to. After having a rough game with few looks, Joseph got hot and hit two clutch threes. His second three-pointer was under the three-minute mark and put Oregon up, 75-70.
“I had just hit one two minutes ago,” Joseph said. “Players get in zones where you think you can’t miss … I was wide open and I took it.”
Forward Ian Crosswhite also was key down the stretch for Oregon with solid play in the low post. Crosswhite had 15 points and three rebounds.
Oregon finished with five players in double-figure points.
Diogu finished with 24 points, five assists and nine rebounds for Arizona State. Moore had 17 points and was 4 for 4 on free throws.
Oregon shot 31 of 53 (59 percent) on field goals and the Ducks were 35 percent from beyond the three-point line, slightly below their 43 percent nationally-leading average.
The Ducks now will look to use this momentum heading to Tucson to face Arizona Sunday at 1 p.m. on CBS.