A double-digit lead evaporated in less than five minutes in the second half, but No. 12 Oregon (16-4, 5-2 Pac-12) escaped USC (15-4, 4-2 Pac-12) with a quality home victory in double overtime at Matthew Knight Arena on Thursday night.
Junior Chris Duarte stole the show, finishing the night with 30 points, 11 rebounds and eight steals — the first NCAA men’s Division I player to post such a statline since 1999. Payton Pritchard added 24 points and seven assists to continue what is shaping up to be an All-American-caliber senior season.
“We just found a way to win a game. We’ve been doing that too much, though,” head coach Dana Altman said, chuckling. “We need to find a way to get the offense cranking”
Here are three takeaways from the Ducks’ win:
Defensive activity
Duarte’s eight steals immediately jump off the page, and for good reason — a pair of them in the backcourt late in the game highlighted what ended up being a historic defensive night for the Dominican Republic native. But the entire team, save for the five-minute lull that turned a 10-point lead into a tie game, did a fantastic job causing disruption on the defensive end against a team that has been prone to turnovers all season.
“It’s just all about effort, man,” Duarte said. “It’s all about effort.”
The Ducks turned USC over 18 times total, including four in overtime, to combat an offensive attack that was mostly limited to just Duarte and Pritchard. Those turnovers led directly to 23 points in the game, and the Ducks’ 16-7 advantage in fast-break points proved critical down the stretch.
Pritchard reaches career milestone
Pritchard’s 24 and 7 on Thursday night was just another day at the office. What wasn’t so routine, though, was this: he became the first player in Pac-12 men’s basketball history to reach 1,500 points, 600 assists and 500 rebounds in a career.
That accomplishment becomes just another in a long line of accomplishments that he’s reached in his illustrious Duck career — one that will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest in program history.
After testing the NBA waters following the blistering finish to his junior season, NBA scouts told him that they needed to see “March Madness Pritchard” on a more regular basis. The 2019-20 college basketball season is now three months old, and the Pritchard everyone saw in the 2019 NCAA Tournament has shown up every single night.
A win is a win
Going to double overtime at home against a team you’re favored to beat is never ideal. Altman even admitted as much after the game. But in college basketball — especially this year — it doesn’t matter how games are won. And that’s a good thing for the Ducks, because Thursday’s overtime affair was the fifth of the season and the Ducks have come out winners in four of the five.
It wasn’t pretty, but they escaped with a win. And they now have 16 of them before the calendar turns to February.
