As a senior, center N’Faly Dante’s been subjected to his fair share of unpredictable, sarcastic adages that flood Oregon head coach Dana Altman’s vocabulary.
One message, however, has remained constant, and Altman’s never once delivered it in a satirical manner.
On Thursday, it was written out on a whiteboard in the locker room before Oregon’s (19-13, 13-8) second round Pac-12 Tournament matchup against Washington State (17-16, 11-10).
It read: “It’s going to be a 40 minute fight.”
“He was right about that,” Dante said.
In many ways, the Ducks 75-70 win over the Cougars reflected Altman’s definition of a true 40-minute fight. It was a charge led by Keeshawn Barthelemy’s 17 points and Dante’s ability to control the interior on both sides. Both made it seem like a one-sided bout, at first, until the Cougars’ inevitably threw their counter-punch and put the Ducks on the ropes.
Oregon controlled the opening 15 minutes of the game. It jumped out to a 34-15 lead, powered by a 26-6 scoring run that made it clear the game plan behind Altman’s message was to own the paint.
Why wouldn’t it be? Just 16 days ago the Ducks had lost to the Cougars 68-65, in large part due to center Mouhamed Gueye’s game-high 18 points.
“Gueye’s a handful inside,” Altman said. “So we knew it was going to be a tough game.”
Twelve of the Ducks’ first 16 made field goals came on layups and dunks, while the defense was anchored by Dante and center Kel’el Ware, who corralled seven rebounds in the nine minutes he played.
At halftime, Gueye had just one point and didn’t play the final four minutes of the half. But in that period he was on the bench, the Cougars’ offense began to click. They put together a 15-4 scoring run that carried over into the second half. With 9:10 remaining, the Cougars took their first lead since the score sat at 9-8.
It was a scoring barrage, in which they shot 9-of-13 from three-point range.
“This is a team that has hit 14 threes on six different occasions,” Altman said. “No lead is safe with them, I kept reminding the fellas of that.”
And for all of the positives that come with Dante as the marquee player — a consistent and efficient source of offense and a stabilizer on defense — it can be tough at times for a team whose best player tends to make his mark within five feet from the basket.
During the Cougars’ comeback, that much was apparent. The Ducks reverted to drop coverage on defense, almost asking the Pac-12’s best three point shooting team to pull from deep, and on offense, they struggled to move the ball and find Dante.
“I made a mistake, we let them get that run and I should have taken a timeout,” Altman said. “They made their move, and I thought our offense got a little tentative.”
Suddenly, the Ducks trailed 58-57 with just over nine minutes remaining.
They had delivered the first blow and were hit with one back.
It’s a spot they’ve grown accustomed to over the last few weeks — one highlighted by a three-game stretch composed of a one-point overtime loss to Washington, that three-point loss to the Cougars and a last-second two-point win against Oregon State.
Regardless of how they found themselves in those holes against worse teams, it seemed as if the Ducks learned a thing or two from those experiences.
No. 1: Collectively, feed the hot hand.
Not all that dissimilar from Feb. 19, it was Barthelemy who fit that bill.
“In the second half, my teammates were there for me,” Barthelemy said. “They allowed me to do what I do.”
Sixteen days ago, he had 17 points but attempted just one shot in the last five minutes. On Thursday, his teammates made sure his offense would decide it.
“We knew he had the hot hand,” guard Will Richardson said. “He knew he had the hot hand. He wanted the rock, and we got it to him.”
Barthelemy’s jump-shot tied the game at 70 with three minutes to go. But it was what got the Ducks there that helped them finish off the game.
No. 2: Win in the painted area.
The next time down, Dante cleaned up Barthelemy’s miss and gave the Ducks a two point advantage. The Ducks didn’t allow a basket in the final 3:30, an effort capped by an emphatic block from Dante on a layup attempt from Justin Powell that would have tied the game with 28 seconds to go.
In a season that’s been complicated by an injury bug, leading to a lack of lineup continuity many of Altman’s little innuendos have fallen moot. Thursday’s performance, however; it was evident that his pre-game lesson stuck.
