The stadium was bigger. Millions were watching. The opponent was faster. The stakes were higher.
But it didn’t matter for Oregon. Even as UNLV erased an 18-point deficit to bring the game within two points in the final seconds, the Ducks had ice-cold blood running through their veins as they walked away with a 76-72 victory to face defending champion Florida in the Elite Eight on Sunday.
Even though Oregon came with the victory, the team was still disappointed with its effort down the stretch. Junior Bryce Taylor knows that the Ducks will have to play better to have any shot at getting past the Gators.
“Everyone has to take a little fault in that we need to make sure we step up in those crunch-time situations and don’t relax even though we’re up 18 points,” Taylor said.
The reason for the near meltdown?
“We got a bit tentative and careless with the ball,” Taylor said. “We have to make sure we keep our composure down the stretch of the games and everybody has to want the ball in those situations.”
The scouting report heading into the Sweet 16 game for the Ducks’ opponents was that they like to shoot the three. This game was no different. Fortunately for Oregon, the scouting report didn’t help the Rebels as they allowed the Ducks to shoot 56.5 percent from beyond the arc, including 7-of-11 in the second half.
Freshman point guard Tajuan Porter led all scorers with 33 points and his offensive outburst, he was 9-of-17 from the floor, 8-of-12 from the three-point line and an uncharacteristic two misses from the free-throw line, going 7-of-9. Still, his key buckets near the end helped seal the win for Oregon.
For anybody that had been watching Porter all season, his clutch performance didn’t come as a surprise – his lack of confidence to shoot the ball has never been an issue.
“It’s a rim and a ball,” Porter said. ‘I just took good shots and I’m confident in my shots and my abilities and I was able to knock them down today.”
Even in college basketball’s biggest stage, Oregon coach Ernie Kent didn’t seem surprised at his diminutive star’s performance.
“We have seen him play like that before early on and nothing really goes through your mind because he’s just a terrific little ball player,” Kent said. “He had a game with 10 threes and I took him out of the game. He was upset. He said he wanted to go for 50.”
Now Porter needs to repeat the performance to take down the Midwestern region’s No. 1 seed Florida.
“They have everything you need to be a national champion, which is why they did last year,” Kent said. “And, you know, they’re right there to go do it again this year. So we’re going to have to play extremely, extremely well to win that ball game and we’re well aware of that too.”
The Ducks will likely need better performances of their two other star guards, Taylor and Aaron Brooks who combined for 14 points on 4-of-12 shooting, one rebound, six turnovers and eight fouls.
Kent couldn’t attribute the struggle to anything specifically, it was just an off game.
” There’s no reason for it at all,” Kent said. “They’re the type of kids that will bounce back play better the next time out.”.