The Oregon men’s basketball team hoped to give head coach Ernie Kent a victory for his 50th birthday Saturday against Arizona State.
Instead, the Ducks came out of the locker room ice cold and fell to the Sun Devils, 64-51, in front of a sellout crowd at McArthur Court.
Oregon (11-5 overall, 3-4 Pacific-10 Conference) shot 20 of 70 from the floor and connected on a miserable 4 of 34 three-point attempts against Arizona State’s zone defense. The Sun Devils (14-5, 3-4) entered the contest on a three-game losing streak, allowing 90.7 points per game during that stretch, but limited the hapless Duck offense to a 28.6 percent shooting clip — including 11.8 percent from three-point range.
“Quite frankly, with this group, I felt like they hit the wall with their rhythm, their energy and their timing,” Kent said. “And it’s something that we’re going to have to push ourselves through.”
Oregon found itself down 33-19 at halftime and got within no closer than 10 in the second half. The Ducks looked confused offensively for the second consecutive game, often standing around and forcing long-range jumpers. Even when the Ducks got open looks from the perimeter, they couldn’t knock down their shots.
“We were very stagnant,” Oregon freshman Malik Hairston said. “We didn’t let our offense flow; we played heavy legged and we didn’t play with a lot of intensity.”
Hairston led Oregon with 17 points but made only 8 of 18 from the floor, including 1 of 8 from three-point range. Aaron Brooks finished with 10 points on 3-of-15 shooting (0-of-6 from three-point range), while Bryce Taylor scored three points on 1-of-10 shooting (1-of-7 from three-point range).
“Defensively, we worked really hard,” Arizona State head coach Rob Evans said. “(Friday) we had the hardest practice we’ve had the day before a game because I was not happy with our defense (of late).”
The lack of an inside game was also evident for Oregon, as post players combined to shoot 3-of-7 from the floor. Forward Ian Crosswhite, who came off the bench for the first time all season after struggling for several games, didn’t attempt a field goal and committed two turnovers in 12 foul-plagued minutes.
Crosswhite, who garnered All-Pac-10 Honorable Mention honors last season, was the third big man off the bench — following Ray Schafer and seldom-used Adam Zahn — and didn’t enter the game until the 11:52 mark of the first half.
Arizona State jumped out to a 6-0 lead when Steve Moore and Bryson Krueger knocked down consecutive three-pointers against Oregon’s zone defense. The Ducks got as close as two at several points in the first half but trailed the entire game.
Oregon did excel defensively, however, limiting the Sun Devils to 36.5 percent shooting. The Ducks also held star center Ike Diogu to a
career-low-tying 10 points. Diogu also grabbed 10 rebounds.
Arizona State forward Serge Angounou led all scorers with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Jordan Kent grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds for the Ducks in 15 minutes.
Despite consecutive home losses, the Ducks said they’re not panicking and are capable of turning things around.
“We hope the character is strong enough on this team,” Hairston said. “We need to stick together and just continue to move forward and learn from our losses.”
