It wasn’t always pretty, but the Ducks came away with a 102-75 win over the Concordia Cavaliers in the first of two exhibitions before the Ducks open their season in earnest against Northern Arizona on Nov. 10.
The Ducks were led by freshman Dominc Artis who scored 17 points on 7-11 shooting in his first game as a Duck.@@https://www.nmnathletics.com//pdf8/966485.pdf?ATCLID=205722025&SPSID=4297&SPID=235&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
“He’s a great player,” junior Jonathan Loyd said. “He knows how to make plays, he knows the game well. I feel like he’s advanced for his age and he can really shoot it.”
Oregon had balanced scoring with seven players in double figures, thanks in large part to the Ducks ability to spread the ball around.  Oregon tacked up 21 assists on the night.
“I didn’t see a lot of bad shots,” head coach Dana Altman said. “I thought they did a pretty good job of making plays for each other.”
Oregon did have its struggles, most notably at the line and on defense.  The Ducks were 12-24 from the line with a particularly subpar 2-9 showing in the second half. Much of those struggles on defense can be attributed to inexperience with senior EJ Singler missing the game due to a nagging knee injury.
“EJ has so much experience,” Loyd said. “He’s not afraid to tell people what to do and demand stuff out of people. Missing that on the court, it was different. I just can’t wait for him to get back.”
Even with Singler back though, there will be a learning curve for the Ducks young freshmen to adjust to defending at the collegiate level.
“All I can do is speak from experience,” Loyd said. “It took like half of the season for me to really know that the college game is a lot faster, it’s played at a higher pace. You can’t take plays off”
Turning point.  The Ducks started off slowly and trailed by as many as seven points early on but they took the lead for good with a nine-point run early in the first half and led by double digits for most of the last half hour of the game.
On the horizon. The Ducks play another exhibition game against Southwestern Oklahoma State on Nov. 5 before their season officially begins on Nov. 10. Oregon will continue to experiment with different player rotations in practice and their final exhibition game as they look to establish a new identity with nine new players on the roster.