It wasn’t pretty, and it might not get better anytime soon.
Oregon’s 76-58 loss to Arizona State on Saturday in Tempe, Ariz., leaves Oregon in a 0-4 hole to start Pacific-10 Conference play, its worst start since the 1992-93 season.
That year the Ducks lost their first 11 games, eventually finishing with a 3-15 conference record.
Why Oregon Lost
| Oregon matched its Pac-10 worst average of points allowed Saturday, giving up 76 points to ASU. No other team in the league allows more than 67 points per game. Arizona State leads the league in shooting percentage (52 percent), while the Ducks are the worst (41 percent), and that didn’t change Saturday. ASU shot 54 percent in the game. Arizona State’s balance showed its ability to take over a game, as five players scored more than 10 points. |
Even more troublesome for the Ducks, the game raised questions about Oregon’s most experienced player after head coach Ernie Kent benched junior guard and leading scorer Tajuan Porter for not hustling for a loose ball.
Porter didn’t play the second-half of the game, finishing with three points – after scoring two against Arizona on Thursday – in 16 minutes.
Kent told the media afterward that Porter, who was seen on television waving off his coach when Kent tried to talk with him after the benching, wasn’t kept there because of the wave-off but more because of his whole weekend of play.
“If you want to call it being ‘disciplined,’ I just felt like he needed to sit down at that point in time in the game,” Kent said.
Sophomore guard LeKendric Longmire led the team with 15 points and eight rebounds, and second-half substitution Drew Wiley, freshman forward, was the only other player in double figures with 12 points in 17 minutes.
Like they have all season, the No. 20 Sun Devils (14-2, 3-1 Pac-10) made this one look easy for the final 30 minutes, allowing Oregon one made field goal in the final 8:49 before halftime to pull away with a 15-3 run.
The Ducks more than helped the Sun Devils’ cause by shooting 38.9 percent from the field, even worse than their already conference-worst 41 percent shooting this season going into the game.
Oregon (6-10, 0-4) trailed at halftime 41-25, and kept an all-freshman lineup throughout much of the second half. The youth infusion allowed Oregon to nearly double Arizona State in bench scoring, 33-17. The Ducks scored 24 bench points in the second half.
The play of the freshmen couldn’t keep Oregon close after the disastrous end to the first half. After four lead changes in the first half that ended when sophomore guard Kamyron Brown made a three-pointer to put Oregon ahead 17-16 with 8:57 remaining in the first half to give Oregon its last lead, the Ducks never made a charge at the lead again.
Oregon hosts Washington at McArthur Court this Thursday at 7 p.m. before playing Washington State on Saturday with an 11 a.m. start time.
[email protected]
