Field goals were hard to come by for Oregon and Portland State Tuesday at McArthur Court.
Fortunately for the Ducks, free throw shooting played a huge factor down the stretch. Oregon connected on 22 of 29 freebies for the game — compared to 7 of 15 for the Vikings — en route to a 62-55 victory.
Oregon was able to battle through an 18 of 43 shooting night by getting to the line. When the jumpers stopped falling, the Ducks attacked the rim and made plays with their athleticism. Oregon took advantage of its trips to the charity stripe by connecting on 14 of 15 in the second half.
“The good thing was we shot free throws very well,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said.
Portland State had numerous opportunities to steal a win against a Pacific-10 Conference team but couldn’t hit a big shot when it needed to. The Vikings got as close as four with 2:27 remaining, but their poor shooting would eventually catch up with them. They shot 39 percent from the floor, including 4 of 17 from three-point range.
Junior guard Blake Walker felt the worst of the Vikings shooting woes, finishing 3 of 17 from the field, including 1 of 7 from three-point range.
While it would be easy for a team like Portland State to enter McArthur Court as a nervous bunch, Vikings head coach Heath Schroyer said his team was prepared to enter a hostile environment.
“I think they were excited,” Schroyer said. “I talked to them about the crowd. You’ve got to take away transition and take away the three and in turn, that will take away some of the crowd. I don’t think our guys were nervous, they were really more excited.”

Oregon trio shines
Amidst the shooting struggles of many, Luke Jackson, Ian Crosswhite and Brandon Lincoln were able to carry the load offensively for Oregon. Jackson stepped up his production in the second half en route to a 22-point performance. The senior attributed his shooting 1 of 4 in the first half to the Portland State defense.
“I wasn’t getting a lot of good looks,” Jackson said. “They were staying out on (the perimeter) and not collapsing on the big guys.”
The senior forward’s night ended on a sour note, however, as he took a shot to the stomach and left the floor feeling sick.
Crosswhite was a force inside and seemingly was able to score whenever his teammates were able to get him the ball. The sophomore finished with 14 points on 7 of 10 shooting.
Kent said Crosswhite was “unstoppable” at times.
Lincoln finished with 12 points and used his energy to help Oregon on both sides of the ball.
“I thought Brandon had a good game,” Kent said. “He was one of the bright spots on the floor.”

High school memories
Lincoln and Portland State forward Antone Jarrell were opponents Tuesday, but were once teammates on one of the nation’s elite high school teams. The duo used to play for Jefferson High School in Portland.
When Jarrell was a senior and Lincoln was a sophomore, the Democrats won a state title, finishing with a 28-0 record and the nation’s No. 4 ranking.
“It kind of took me back to my sophomore year of high school when we used to go at it in practice,” Lincoln said. “He came out there and competed hard, we came out and competed hard and (Portland State) gave us a good fight.”