It was a day of lessons at McArthur Court.
Washington State head coach Paul Graham suspended six players from the game against Oregon for a violation of team rules and sent them back to Pullman, Wash., Saturday morning.
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent didn’t start his two best players in an attempt to light a fire under his team after three straight losses.
The results helped the Ducks and hindered the Cougars in Oregon’s wire-to-wire 81-66 victory Saturday afternoon in front of a crowd of 8,861.
“This was a must-win,” Oregon freshman Luke Ridnour said.
The Ducks improved to 11-4 overall and 2-3 in the Pacific-10 Conference and handed the Cougars (7-8, 1-5) their 29th-straight Pac-10 road loss.
The six suspended Cougars account for 40 percent of the team’s scoring. So, maybe Kent was trying to level the playing field when he didn’t start Freddie Jones and Bryan Bracey, who combine for 40 percent of the Ducks’ scoring.
In their place was Oregon freshman Luke Jackson, who caused a jump ball with great defense on the first play of the game, and senior Flo Hartenstein, who scored the first points of the game on a layin.
The change in the starting lineup ignited the Ducks to an 11-5 lead and set the pace for a win that Oregon desperately needed after falling to Washington in overtime two days earlier.
From the time that Thursday’s game ended and Saturday’s began, the Ducks talked about where they stood as a unit, including a candid and encouraging meeting where everybody agreed on a team-first mentality.
“We took the last 36 hours to do a lot of teaching and a little bit of counseling that allowed this team to come back together and grow again,” Kent said. “I’m encouraged by what I saw. They responded well.”
Jones and Bracey displayed their leadership maturity by accepting Kent’s lineup changes with ease and then leading the team to the win. Jones scored a game-high 19 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and came two assists shy of a triple-double. Bracey also recorded a double-double with 17 points and 10 boards.

“The only difference about starting and not starting is you don’t get your name called out before the game,” Jones said. “You see a lot of things sitting on the bench. It gets you excited. We’re not worrying about individual glory.”
The Ducks played with a better flow than that of Thursday’s game, but still ran into trouble with the depleted Cougars. Washington State’s players showed a lot of fight and were only down 38-33 when guard David Adams drilled a jumper with 17:43 to play in the game.
Oregon then received points from Julius Hicks on a free throw and Jackson on a layup, but it wasn’t until a Jones three-pointer at the 15:46 mark that Oregon began to pull away. The six straight points ignited a 13-2 Oregon run that was capped by another Jones trey to put the Ducks up 49-35 with 14:19 remaining.
Washington State would get no closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
“We made a couple runs there that cut the lead down, but they just had a few more horses than we did,” Graham said. “Your hands are tied [with fewer players], but that’s part of college basketball.”
A key component to Oregon’s win was little-used 7-foot-2 center Chris Christoffersen, who won the battle against Washington State’s 7-1, 301-pound Paulo Rower. Christoffersen finished with a career-high 11 points in 12 solid minutes of play.
“It was a lot of fun, always more fun when there’s another big guy,” Christoffersen said. “It helped me get my confidence back.”
Another Oregon player who is continually gaining confidence is Jackson, who had nine points, seven rebounds and three assists in his first career start. He even displayed his athletic ability in the first half when he skied high for an alley-oop pass from Jones and threw it down with two hands to give Oregon the 33-19 lead.
“That was pretty sweet,” Ridnour said.
As for Kent, he knows that there’s a lot more work to do between now and Oregon’s game at Southern Cal Thursday.
“It is a perfect time for us to go on the road and continue our fellowship as men,” Kent said. “We’ve got some things worked out and feel like we’re back on track. I’m looking forward to it.”