Led by the play of point guard Aaron Brooks, the Oregon men’s basketball team defeated Southern California 90-83 during its Pacific-10 Conference opener Friday at McArthur Court.
The sophomore from Seattle scored 34 points, including a three-pointer with 2 minutes and 18 seconds remaining that gave the Ducks an 82-80 lead they didn’t relinquish.
Brooks connected on 9 of 13 field goal attempts — including 4 of 7 from three-point range — and knocked down 12 of 13 free throws.
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent called Brooks’ performance — which included 23 second-half points — “one of the greatest point guard performances,” he’d seen at Mac Court.
“The way he controlled the tempo of the game and did it with ease, I couldn’t have even guessed he had 34 points,” Kent said of Brooks. “That tells me he did it entirely within the system.”
A USC turnover late in the second half resulted in this lay-in by Duck Freshmand Bryce Taylor.
The Ducks (9-1 overall, 1-0 Pac-10) have won nine of their first ten games, while the Trojans (7-5, 0-1) let an opportunity to steal a conference road win slip away.
After trailing by as many as 13 points in the first half, USC grabbed an 80-77 lead with 4:24 remaining on a three-pointer by sophomore guard Lodrick Stewart. The Trojans had several opportunities to extend their advantage but were turned away by solid Oregon defensive efforts. In turn, the Ducks closed out the final 2:34 on a 13-3 run to pull out the victory.
“We’ve got a crew of good shooters,” Brooks said. “It’s going to be hard to stop one dude and we just need to get out and pass the ball and hit our shots and that’s what happened today.”
Freshman forward Maarty Leunen also played a big role in Oregon’s late comeback. The Redmond native finished with 13 points and came up with two big steals in the closing minutes. After being physically overmatched by 255-pound USC forward Gregg Guenther on several possessions, Leunen used his quickness later in the game to sneak in front of the stronger Trojan and intercept a pair of entry passes.
With 23 points in the second half, sophomore point guard Aaron Brooks scored a career high 34 points in Friday night’s game against USC.
The Trojans wasted solid efforts from Stewart and freshman forward Nick Young, who helped USC shoot 54 percent from the floor against an Oregon team that has held opponents to a 41 percent clip for the season. Stewart finished with 25 points and connected on 5 of 12 three-point attempts, while Young added 21 points, grabbed seven rebounds and was a constant headache for the Ducks on both ends of the court.
Bryce Taylor finished with 18 points for the Ducks, while Ian Crosswhite and Leunen tied for the team-high with five rebounds.
