The Oregon men’s basketball team overcame a slow start and closed out its home schedule Saturday on Senior Day by handing Washington State a 67-37 loss.
The Ducks (12-15 overall, 6-9 Pacific-10 Conference) bid farewell to Brandon Lincoln and Matt Short – the pair of seniors playing in their final regular season game. They celebrated by allowing the fewest points (37) by an Oregon team in a Pac-10 game since the advent of the shot clock at the beginning of the 1985-86 season.
The Ducks last held a Pac-10 opponent under 37 points in 1984 against Oregon State, a game the Beavers won, 29-23.
The 30-point loss is the worst conference road defeat for the Cougars (11-12, 4-10) under current coach Dick Bennett.
Washington State’s 37 points is its lowest output in a conference road game since a 37-36 loss at Washington in 1970.
“This was a very embarrassing performance and a very impressive performance after the first five minutes by Oregon,” Bennett said. “We had no answer to anything they were able to do. They pretty much toyed with us, and we got back on our heels.”
Both the Ducks and Cougars opened the game with slow starts before 9,087 at McArthur Court.
The Ducks missed their first 10 shots from the field and the Cougars missed their first six, resulting in a 1-1 tie 7:34 into the first half.
Two free-throws by Oregon’s Maarty Leunen gave the Ducks a 3-1 lead momentarily until Washington State’s Josh Akognon notched the game’s first field goal with 12:17 remaining in the half.
Aaron Brooks hit Oregon’s first field goal with 12:01 remaining, and the Ducks finished the half on a 25-7 run to take a 30-10 lead into the break.
“We got some open looks, but we just had some jitters with all the emotion of Senior Day and everything like that,” said Lincoln, who enjoyed a pre-game ceremony with his and Short’s parents. “Once we got that out of our systems, we kind of got into our offensive rhythm and shots started to fall.”
Washington State’s 10 points were its lowest in a half this season and ties the lowest allowed by the Ducks. Oregon also held Savannah State to 10 points at halftime this season on Nov. 20.
The Cougars previous first-half season low was 12 points, scored at home against UCLA in a 50-30 loss on Feb. 9.
“We got out to a slow start and shots just weren’t falling,” the Cougars’ Kyle Weaver said. “We got down, and it was tough to get going.”
Washington State shot 13 percent in the first half on 3-of-23 shooting, and its leading scorer, Robbie Cowgill, had three points in the opening half.
Despite the slow start, the Ducks shot 34.5 percent (10 of 29) from the field and were led in the first half by Chamberlain Oguchi’s 11 points and Brooks’ nine points.
“If there was ever a half where there’s a better defensive effort and defensive performance, I couldn’t remember it,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. “I thought they did a phenomenal job.”
The Cougars made four of their first eight shots after the break and matched their first-half point total in the first 5:21 of the second half.
After two free-throws from Weaver, Washington State narrowed the deficit to 13 on the strength of an 11-2 run with 8:38 to play.
But Brooks’ three-pointer ignited a 15-0 run spanning the next 6:16, allowing the Ducks to take a 61-33 lead. Oregon finished the game on a 21-4 run.
“I thought it was going to be an ugly game,” Oregon’s Malik Hairston said. “But some guys caught fire, we got into a little bit of a rhythm offensively, and we just continued to play great defense.”
Oguchi finished with 18 points, Hairston had 15 and Brooks chipped in 12 points. Leunen finished with 12 rebounds, helping the Ducks to a 45-28 advantage on the boards.
Lincoln, who entered his final home game averaging a career-best 5.9 points per game, scored eight points in a season-high 34 minutes. Short made two free-throws late in the game to tie his season-high, scored on Nov. 22 against Pacific.
During the pre-game warm-ups, Oregon players wore jerseys honoring Short and Lincoln.
“I came into it more nonchalant, not thinking much of it,” Short said. “But it ended up being quite the special day for me. I really enjoyed it. It was a warm goodbye.”
Cowgill (11 points), Weaver (10 points) and Akognon (10 points) combined to score 31 of the Cougars’ 37 total points.
Oregon has now won 10 straight against Washington State.
Oregon, which is at USC (Feb. 23) and UCLA (Feb. 26), played Saturday without Ivan Johnson, who did not enter the game because of a “coach’s decision.” Kent said the decision was not based on a a technical foul Johnson received Thursday against Washington.
After the Ducks’ trip to Los Angeles, they return to the state to face Oregon State on March 4 in Corvallis to conclude the regular season.

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