Oregon men’s basketball defeated Eastern Washington 81-47 Friday night at Matthew Knight Arena. The No. 14 Ducks pounced early and buried the Eagles.

Despite the lopsided victory, Oregon head coach Dana Altman was not pleased with how his team played overall.

“Offensively our execution has got to get so much better, but hopefully we’ll be able to get a few things ironed out,” Altman said.

But the Ducks still won what was a tune-up before heading for tougher competition in the weeks to come.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Ending it Early

It took five minutes to get going on offense, but the Ducks didn’t stop when they did. Oregon went on a 24-0 run from the 15 minute mark to five minutes, building a 29-6 lead.

In that run, Bol Bol dunked three times, forward Paul White and guard Victory Bailey Jr. hit 3s. The Ducks pulled away, but Altman wasn’t always pleased.

“We’ve got a long way to go there,” he said. “The ball’s not moving very good. We got pushed off the blocks on some post ups.”

Oregon’s defense was just as good on that stretch. Eastern Washington missed 19 straight shots. The Ducks held them to only two attempted shots inside the 3-point arc in the first half. Both were jumpers as Eastern Washington failed to attempt a layup or dunk on the 7-foot-2 Bol and 6-foot-9 Kenny Wooten.
“I thought our activity was pretty good,” head coach Dana Altman said. “We had some pretty good switches. We played man the first half, worked on our zone in the second half, but I thought our activity was pretty good in that stretch.”

The early lead gave Oregon’s players time to gel with little consequence.

“These games you find out your role, too,” guard Ehab Amin said.

Bol’s Best
Bol has played three games (one was an exhibition) in an Oregon uniform, and Friday night’s was his best. He finished with 23 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks. He showed his full array of skills, hitting a 3, a fadeaway on the block, while swatting shots on the defensive end.

He has struggled with defensive positioning, but on Friday night he was better, forcing Eastern Washington away from the paint and contesting shots on the perimeter. Eastern Washington only scored two points in the paint.

His presence is impacting some Ducks as well. Last season, Oregon might’ve been too small. Now it’s the opposite. Wooten’s role changes from last season when he was Oregon’s center.

“It was pretty natural trying to adjust ‘cause I’m not going to be able to get all the rebounds, so having him makes it a lot easier,” Wooten said. “Having him being able to block shots, it just makes things a lot easier for me, so I do my job, and he’ll be able to help me out whenever I don’t.”

3-point shooting
Many media members and fans questioned how Oregon would shoot threes this season. The Ducks are a frontcourt-heavy roster, with point guard Payton Pritchard pinned as the guy to be the Ducks’ threat from 3.

In the first game against Portland State, the Ducks only attempted seven, making four. Against Eastern Washington, Oregon let if fly from beyond the arc. Oregon shot 10-for-25 from 3-point range, a percentage it would be happy with game-in, game-out. Far better compared to Eastern Washington shooting 13-of-45.
Even with the run in the first half, Oregon only shot 3-of-13 from 3. The Ducks got better looks in the second half and hit them, shooting 7-of-12.

“We took some bad ones that first half,” Altman said. “In the second half I thought we took a lot better 3s. … I thought we had better inside outside 3s than ones we took in the first half.”
Follow Jack Butler on Twitter @Butler917