Until well into the second half, the Oregon Ducks (7-3) played a terrible game against the North Carolina-Central Eagles (5-6), but a 19-3 second-half run erased all fears as the home team coasted to a 58-45 win at Matthew Knight Arena. The game was the first for both teams in the Global Sports Hoops Showcase, a three-day round-robin tournament hosted by Oregon in Eugene.
Oregon nursed a three-point lead into halftime, as the teams had a first half to forget. The teams combined to shoot 12 of 58 from the field and 2 of 19 from three-point range while registering 11 turnovers to only four assists. However, the Ducks made up for it by going a perfect 10 of 10 from the free-throw line in the first half.
“I didn’t like the way we made shots for each other,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “The ball got hung up a little bit too much. The ball movement wasn’t good and so we’ve got some work to do there.”
In the second half, Oregon finally got its offense to click. The Ducks, which shot 20 percent in the first half, shot 46 percent in the second half and made 5 of 8 second-half three-pointers. They still shot well from the line as well, going 10 of 12, shooting better than 90 percent from the line for the first time this season. They also put together a positive 6-to-5 assist-to-turnover ratio in the second half.
“I think we settled down a little bit offensively and got some good looks for each other,” senior guard Garrett Sim said.
Meanwhile, Oregon’s defense continued to force bad shots from North Carolina-Central, holding the Eagles to 29.5 percent shooting for the game, including 20 percent three-point shooting.
“In the second half, we had 18 points off turnovers,” Altman said. “We took the opportunities, and guys were freed up, making plays, and that was much better defensively.”
Sim was pleased with his teammates’ effort on defense and said that was what led his team’s second-half turnaround.
“Tonight, we really wanted to focus on the defensive end. It got us jump-started for the second half,” Sim said.  “Overall, we did a good job defensively. Offensively, there are things we could get better at.”
The Ducks were led offensively by Sim, who went 5 for 7 from the field and 3 for 5 from three-point range to finish with 13 points.
The Eagles’ offense was dominated by forward Ray Willis and guard Jeremy Ingram. Willis shot 5 for 21 from the field, scoring 11 points, and grabbed nine rebounds but turned the ball over six times. Ingram went 4 for 11, finishing with 10 points and six rebounds.
Oregon will play host to Prairie View A&M tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. North Carolina-Central plays Stephen F. Austin at 4:30 p.m. Prairie View A&M defeated Stephen F. Austin 53-50 in earlier action Monday at Knight Arena.
Freshman guard Brown transfers to Missouri
It was also announced earlier in the day that former Oregon guard Jabari Brown was transferring to Missouri. The highly touted freshman played in two games for the Ducks before deciding to leave the program.