The Ducks made it three in a row against Pacific-10 Conference foes with a 71-66 victory over No. 23 Stanford Sunday, in front of 9,087 at a sold-out McArthur Court.
Senior forward Maarty Leunen led the way for Oregon (12-4, 3-1 Pac-10) with 16 points and five rebounds, and was called for a foul just once – a technical foul in the early minutes of the game – despite being tasked with guarding Stanford’s Lopez brothers, Brook and Robin, all afternoon.
Brook Lopez was the only Stanford (13-3, 2-2 Pac-10) player to score in double digits and finished with a game high 26 – 20 of which came in the first half.
“He played extremely well, pretty much the whole game,” Leunen said of Brook Lopez. “We knew he was going to get his points because there’s no really stopping him, but in the first half we did really well on the rest of the guys.”
The Lopez brothers blocked five shots in the game, as a result of Oregon’s strategy to drive to the hoop rather than shoot from outside. Oregon took 16 shots from beyond the arc in the entire game, one less than their total in the first half alone in Thursday night’s game against California.
“You’ve got to attack shot blockers. You’ve got to go to the body,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. “I thought we did a good job of drawing contact in there tonight. We didn’t shoot as many free throws or get as many fouls but we wanted to stay the aggressor and not just sit back and launch threes.”
The contest was close throughout, with 10 ties and nine lead changes. After Tajuan Porter slashed to the basket for a layup with less than two minutes to go to put the Ducks up 65-63, it would come down to a string of free throws by Porter, Malik Hairston and Bryce Taylor, along with some key defensive stops, to seal the win.
“Our poise down the stretch was really, really good with this veteran basketball team,” Kent said. “They made all the right plays, made the free throws, made the right decisions defensively and offensively and I was really proud of them down the stretch of this ballgame.”
Hairston and Porter each scored 15 points for the Ducks and Hairston led the team on the boards with seven rebounds. Porter chipped in four rebounds, an assist and a steal in 30 minutes of playing time off the bench.
“It was great to see Tajuan play well. When he plays with energy and plays free he’s going to be fine every game,” Hairston said. “He did a tremendous job and made some big plays down the stretch. I’m real proud of him.”
“He’s back. He’s back on his game,” Kent said of Porter. “I’m so proud of him because so much growth is going on right now with him.”
Porter wasn’t smiling in his post-game press conference, but he said it felt good to get back on track.
“It felt good. I got my rhythm back,” said Porter. “I’m happy to be back in the lineup and just playing well.”
Stanford had its biggest lead of the game early, leading 6-0 after one minute of play, but Oregon crawled back on threes by Leunen and freshman guard Kamyron Brown.
With the Ducks in possession and looking to tie the game at 10, Leunen missed several layups in a row and was visibly upset with the referees for not calling a foul. He gestured toward the referee with one arm and appeared to shout something as he ran to get back on defense, at which point he was called for a technical foul. Oregon seemed to get fired up over the call, going on a 15-7 run over the next five minutes to lead 23-18.
“That’s kind of unlike me,” Leunen said. “I just got frustrated because I was going to the hoop a lot, just putting some pressure on them, but I wasn’t getting the calls.”
“That might be the funniest thing I’ve seen because Maarty’s not the kind of guy that’s going to scream at the refs and that kind of stuff,” Hairston said. “I mean it wasn’t funny during the game because that could be extra points for them and another possession, but it was hilarious.”
[email protected]
Late game heroics lift Oregon
Daily Emerald
January 13, 2008
0
More to Discover