Another Oregon victory coincided with another impressive three-point shooting performance.
After missing his first six three-point attempts, junior guard Chamberlain Oguchi connected on six of the next seven, leading the Ducks to a 85-42 win over UC Irvine.
“That’s been my motto for a long time. Shooters are going to keep shooting,” Oguchi said.
Oguchi led the team with 25 points in 23 minutes of playing time. He sank his first three with 10:50 left in the second half which fueled a string of 11 consecutive points, helping the Ducks break the game open at 66-35 after a 20-0 run.
“My first three that I hit I was like, ‘Okay, I can hit a three finally. Now I can relax’,” Oguchi said.
While Oguchi’s mind was put at relative ease, the Anteaters’ offense struggled to find any sort of offensive rhythm and were held to 13 points in the second half.
“I thought that was one of the better defensive performances that’s been in this building since I’ve been here,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said.
The Ducks forced more than 20 turnovers for the third consecutive game and continued an up-tempo, high-pressure defense.
“That’s not going to change,” Oguchi said. “We’re going to keep playing aggressive defense.”
Junior guard Bryce Taylor saw that the Ducks’ defensive effort began to have an effect on the Irvine before halftime.
“We noticed that the last three minutes of the half they were breathing real hard and starting to get tired,” Taylor said. “At some point they’re going to break and that’s when we try to push the lead.”
For Oguchi, it’s something the team plans on doing each game.
“That’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to run every team until they can’t run anymore,” Oguchi said. “You’re going to see the (point) margin increase.”
Kent believes that the style of play isn’t always going to lead to a high-scoring game.
“As great as we looked last week, we’re not just going to come in here and blow everybody out,” Kent said. “Sometimes it’s going to be a grind-out game where you wear them down and then blow it open.”
The game was freshman Tajuan Porter’s lowest-scoring game of the season as he was 4 of 9 with 12 points. For most of the night, Porter was guarded by a player nearly a foot taller than him.
“He’s not a guy that is going to go for 40 every night,” Kent said. “I thought (Irvine) did a good job of putting a big guard on him. He just adjusted his game and got other people shots.”
With Porter no longer being the main offensive threat, it was Oguchi’s chance to reprise his role of the main long-distance shooter.
“Tonight, it was Chamberlain Oguchi’s night to shoot threes and knock them down,” Kent said. “I thought Porter did a great job finding him in transition.”
Today, the Ducks face off against the Rice Owls in Houston. Oguchi, a Houston native, is looking forward to performing in front a familiar crowd.
“I’m ready to go and perform in front of my friends and family,” Oguchi said. “It’s something we’ve been waiting for a long time.”
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