The opponents changed. The results did not.
Oregon dominated its own America’s Youth Classic tournament with three blowout wins over the weekend, finishing with a 97-67 victory over Long Beach State on Saturday night. The Ducks also beat Alabama State by 40 points on Thursday and Western Michigan by 43 points on Friday.
“It was good to fight through our fatigue and get three wins in three days,” Oregon sophomore point guard Luke Ridnour said.
The Ducks capped their tournament with the 30-point blowout of the LBSU 49ers on Saturday night. The game was off to a sloppy start until a reverse, two-handed backhand alley-oop dunk by Oregon senior guard Freddie Jones got the crowd, and the Ducks, into the contest. That dunk put Oregon up 7-0, and the Ducks would increase their lead to as many as 21 points in the first half.
Saturday’s game was dominated by the Ducks and a team in black and white pinstripes — the officials. Two players fouled out as the referees called 24 total fouls in the first half and 37 in the game.
Still, the Ducks managed to put together a solid effort on both sides of the floor and improved to 3-0 on the season. Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said he was impressed with his team’s effort during the weekend.
“The fans will look at it as three blowout wins,” Kent said. “We see it as our system totally and completely working.”
Jones was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player for his gravity-defying dunks and tough defense. Jones had his best night statistically against Long Beach State, scoring 16 points and adding three steals in 26 minutes of floor time. With the steals, Jones moved into fourth all-time at Oregon in that category.
“This really belongs to Luke (Ridnour) and all the other guys who came out here and helped us get three wins,” Jones said of the honor.
Junior forward Robert Johnson was the only other Duck to be named to the five-player all-tournament team. Johnson was a rebound vacuum for Oregon over the weekend and collected a total of 25 boards in the three games. Long Beach State’s James Williams, Alabama State’s Joey Ball and Western Michigan’s Steve Reynolds were also named to the team.
As the Ducks prepare to face Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals at the Papé Jam in Portland next weekend, the team members said they will take a few lessons from the tournament.
“I think we learned that we just need to come out and play our game and we’ll win,” Jones said. “We don’t want to be an up-and-down team.”
Oregon will face Louisville at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Rose Garden in Portland.