For the first time in four seasons, a nationally ranked Oregon men’s basketball team took the floor Monday night.
But in the first half against unheralded Bethune-Cookman College (Fla.), the Ducks looked far from their new No. 22 ranking, and it was a pair of reserves in freshman forward Joevan Catron and sophomore guard Churchill Odia that finally ignited Oregon in the second half of its 92-64 victory.
The Ducks, coming off road victories against Rice and then-No. 18 Georgetown as well as Nebraska in Portland at the Pape Jam last Saturday, are now 8-0 for the first time since starting 10-0 in the 1996-97 season. Oregon is also ranked for the first time since Jan. 27, 2003.
“(It’s) definitely pretty cool,” said junior guard Bryce Taylor of the ranking. “It’s the first time we’ve ever been ranked since we’ve been here. But we feel like it’s not really a measure of how good we are as a team because we still haven’t played as well as we’re capable of.”
That was certainly true in the first half against a Wildcat team (2-4) coming off a 72-49 loss at Oregon State.
The Ducks shot just 44.1 percent in the first half and were outrebounded by a smaller and less athletic Bethune-Cookman team, which led 11-10 early and trailed by only two at 28-26 with 6:23 remaining.
The Wildcats managed to keep things interesting at 41-32 heading into the break thanks to the hot shooting of Clemson-transfer Jimmy Hudson.
The junior guard connected on three three-pointers in the first half and five for the game to finish with 21 points.
“I thought the first half, we were a little bit sluggish,” said Oregon coach Ernie Kent, who believed his team was fatigued after seven straight days of practice and finals last week. “(There was) just a brief talk at halftime about getting up the line more defensively, and we need to crank it up a notch because we were flat.”
The Ducks responded by zoning, trapping and pressing the Wildcats into 24 total turnovers while shooting 63 percent to cruise to the easy win in the second half.
“I thought the second half they made a nice adjustment and played with a lot more energy,” Kent said.
Taylor continued his hot shooting and led all scorers with 21 points. He came into the game shooting 55 percent from the field and shot 7-of-11 Monday and 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. Fellow starter Tajuan Porter added 13 points for the Ducks.
But much of the second half spark came from the bench, which recorded a season-high total of 35 points led by the 6-foot-6, 225-pound Catron.
The Illinois-native finished with a career-high 15 points on 6-for-6 shooting from the field and had three rebounds, one assist and three steals in 21 minutes.
He also connected on his one three-point attempt in his most extensive playing time since joining the team after hip surgery this summer to repair a torn muscle.
“I’ve said before that if he had been healthy, you would be talking about him as much as you’ve been talking about (fellow freshman) Tajuan Porter and you got a chance to see that tonight,” Kent said.
Catron said he is near 85 percent healthy, but he excited the 6,534 in attendance with his versatility.
“Tonight I was really excited,” Catron said. “I’ve been waiting a while to see how my hip was going to feel…tonight it felt pretty good so I just rolled with it.”
Also returning from offseason surgery was Odia, a 6-foot-6 point guard turned shooting guard, who played in his first career game Monday, finishing with nine points, six coming from three-pointers on back-to-back possessions in the second half. He also dished out five assists in 17 total minutes.
The Xavier transfer had been rehabbing a knee injury.
“I didn’t expect that he would play that well even though he’s done some good things in practice,” Kent said. “For him to get here in Mac Court and play in front of people for the first time … that was an exceptional job that he did to handle himself that way.”
The Ducks are still without starting guard Chamberlain Oguchi for 2-4 weeks after he sprained his ankle against Georgetown. Kent also said that forward Malik Hairston, playing in just his third game back after a sore groin kept him out the first seven, is playing at about 70 percent, making the play of Odia and Catron all the more welcoming.
“Obviously, you saw two really good players in our program that are starting to come back to us, which is really going to help us and increase our depth pretty good,” Kent said.
The Ducks will attempt to defend their No. 22 ranking and continue their unblemished preseason record Friday at Mac Court against Eastern Washington and likely future NBA draft pick Rodney Stuckey, a sophomore who is averaging 25.2 points per game for the Eagles.
The game marks the second of five consecutive non-conference home games for the Ducks before Pac-10 play begins on Dec. 30 at Oregon State.