As the holidays come into full swing, so do the Oregon Ducks (8-3), who will enter the conference slate on the back of an impressive84-70win over the Kent State Golden Flashes (7-4). Despite a loss to Syracuse, Oregon will go into the Pac-12 schedule with wins over Michigan and Georgia. Jermaine Couisnard led a group that went into the half up 16 points and navigated a tricky second half to emerge with the victory 14 points clear of their opposition.
The first half was largely characterized by Ducks dominance. Oregon shut Kent State out for minutes at a time and not unusual were two or three minute stretches where the Golden Flashes seemed snakebitten. The Ducks did well to limit layup opportunities for their opponents, but those droughts were often separated by flurries of three-point efforts that kept Kent State in the game.
Letting their opponents back into the game was the theme for the Ducks. They’d find themselves gifted a turnover (Kent State finished with 14 to Oregon’s five) only to fail to deliver, leaving the game closer than it perhaps should have been at many points. It didn’t come back to bite them — and the stat sheet won’t tell that story as the Ducks’ lead at the break was only two less at the final buzzer — but it was a case of Oregon pulling away late rather than sustaining a lead.
Dana Altman and the Ducks couldn’t get a handle on star guard Jalen Sullinger, who hit multiple impressive 3-point shots from near the ‘O’ in the center of the Pat Kilkenny Floor. Altman told the Pac-12 commentary team before the game that Oregon would focus on stopping drives to the basket, but that left several players open to splash from 3-point land. To boot, Kent State managed 11 3-pointers from 24 efforts, totaling 33 points (roughly 47% of their total score).
For the Ducks, Kwame Evans Jr. was impressive on both ends of the court after a career performance in Oregon’s loss to Syracuse, where he scored 17 points. The true freshman finished with six points, and returned after exiting the court with an ankle injury in the first half to post six defensive rebounds, two offensive rebounds, and two assists. His combination with freshman guard Jackson Shelstad continues to draw praise — Shelstad played nearly 36 straight minutes after starting for the Ducks and the two combined for an Evans dunk in the second half.
Cousinard and Kario Oquendo combined for 47 points — with a lack of height in the lineup, the two tall guards (both 6’4’’) utilized their height to find points where others might not. Both veterans have been valuable players amongst the injury crisis that Oregon has found itself in throughout non-conference play. Missing established centers Nate Bittle and N’Faly Dante, Couisnard and Oquendo have been leaders on the court for the Ducks.
The conference slate opens for Oregon with four major games over the next month — the SoCal duo of USC and UCLA before the Ducks face the Washington schools on the road: first, the Huskies in Seattle and then their rivals in Pullman. Dana Altman will likely be satisfied with an 8-3 record in the non-conference games, with the injuries to Dante, Bittle, Mookie Cook, Jesse Zarzuela and Keeshawn Barthelemy considered, but in order for Oregon to make the NCAA tournament this year, they’ll have to keep it up.
