Oregon was hoping for a dress rehearsal in its final non-conference game. Instead, it got a first half scare from an inferior opponent and are left with plenty of questions as it enters conference play.
The Ducks prevailed over the Western Oregon Wolves by a score of 88-60 in a game that was much closer than the score indicated. The Wolves, one of the top Division II teams in the country, suffered their first loss of the season but found themselves going punch-for-punch with the Ducks in the first half.
“Even though it’s Western Oregon, we didn’t come in with the right mentality,” Oregon guard Tyler Dorsey said.
The Ducks carried a 40-36 lead into halftime, but saw what was once a 16 point lead rapidly disappear after a late surge by a scrappy Wolves unit. Part of that can be attributed to sloppy play — the Ducks had nine first half turnovers and did a poor job of handling an aggressive foul court press from the Wolves — and part of it can be attributed to sharp shooting from the Wolves.
Western Oregon shot 40-percent from three-point range in the first half on 6-of-15 shooting. Wolves’ guard Jordan Wiley, brother of former Oregon Duck Drew Wiley, shot 3-for-3 from distance and nailed two free throws at the end of the first half.
“It was odd — it’s disappointing,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “I didn’t think we were very sharp. We jumped on them early, but then we were just real casual.”
Turnovers haunted the Ducks once again in the second half — they finished with 18 total, but the Wolves came back to earth late in the game and Oregon finally began to assert its athletic advantage. Western Oregon shot just 26-percent from three-point range in the second half, and Wiley was held scoreless. Oregon shot 59-percent from the field as a team, as Dorsey led the way with 14 second half points and finished with a career-high 25.
Despite the lopsided score, the Ducks are now set to begin conference play Sunday at Oregon State with a sour taste in their mouth.
“We wanted to use this game to get ready for PAC-12, but these next couple days we’re going to prepare and work on what we see in film and come in more focused,” Dorsey said.
Despite a night full of ups-and-downs, the Ducks have one thing to be extremely happy about: senior guard Dylan Ennis made his season debut for the Ducks after sitting out the last two months with a broken foot. Altman said that Ennis is being held on a minutes limit — he played just 10 minutes tonight and shot 0-for-2 from the field — but his presence was a major confidence boost for the Ducks nonetheless.
“He wanted to play more but we had the ten-minute restriction on him tonight and we’ll slowly build that up,” Altman said. “We’re not giving him a lot of reps in practice, so it is going to take awhile.”
I think once he gets back full speed he’ll give us a big boost.”
The Ducks are now the healthiest they have been all season. With the additions of Ennis, as well as forward Jordan Bell, who re-joined the team mid-way through the preseason, they have a serious shot at emerging as the front runner in the Pac-12. The question will be how long it takes the team to click and adapt to all the moving parts.
“Right now, because we juggle lineups so much, everybody isn’t sure of their roles,” Altman said. “Because of our injury situation we might not determine roles throughout the month of January.”
Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jdenney50