Freshman Derrick Williams scored 20 points and pulled 13 rebounds as the Arizona Wildcats (9-9, 3-3 Pac-10 Conference) beat the Oregon Ducks (10-7, 2-3 Pac-10) on Saturday afternoon at McArthur Court.
The Wildcats used hot shooting from senior guard Nic Wise and 27 made free throws as a team to hand the Ducks their third straight home loss, falling 74-60. Similar to the last outings, Oregon struggled offensively in the early going.
Arizona went a 7-0 run to start the game before Oregon sophomore Malcolm Armstead sank a pair of free throws at the 16:38 mark. Armstead came off the bench to score 16 points for 13th-year head coach Ernie Kent’s squad. Kent went with yet another different starting lineup on Saturday as both Armstead and senior Tajuan Porter saw the first several minutes of the game from bench. In their place were sophomores Garrett Sim and Teondre Williams, while freshmen Jamil Wilson and E.J. Singler and sophomore Michael Dunigan also got the start.
“I’d say we lost our swag right now,” Dunigan said. “It seems like ever since we got back from off the road things just went down hill for us.”
Dunigan scored 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field, getting the majority of his touches in the second half. But on the other end of the court, the 6-foot-8, 235-pound Williams had his way with Dunigan and the rest of the Oregon posts. Junior LeKendric Longmire said play ultimately comes down to a player’s mentality.
“I don’t understand how you would just let your man continue to score on you; that’s a pride issue for me,” Longmire said without referring to any certain player. “Of course your man is going to score some baskets, but you’re not going to come down the floor every time and I’ll let you continue to score. I just can’t fathom why somebody would do that. It is what it is, and things happen for a reason. People have different mentalities, I guess.”
Longmire has been one of the few bright spots for the Ducks during their current three-game slide, scoring 18 points in his 30 minutes of action off the bench. After the past few games, he hasn’t been shy to explain his frustration with the way things have been going lately, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
“Some people are offensive-minded, some are defensive-minded,” Longmire said. “But in order to win at this level, you better have a nice balance. If not, you’re going to lose three games at home.”
“He’s one of those guys that’s becoming a leader just with his effort,” Kent said of Longmire. “And that’s a good thing for us.”
Oregon shot just 33 percent from the field as a team (20-of-60). Despite getting good looks, the shots again weren’t falling. The Wildcats concluded the first half 10-of-17 from the field and ultimately finished the game shooting just over 51 percent.
Williams, Wise and sophomore Kyle Fogg accounted for 23 points from the charity stripe for Arizona. Wise and Fogg each finished the game with 19 points. Wise exploded for 14 points in the second half on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc, while Fogg did the majority of his damage at the free throw line, hitting all 12 of his attempts.
“They did a good job taking care of the free throw line,” Kent said.
Kent said that once the open shots started falling, the rest of the game would follow suit.
“We had some great looks,” Kent said. “When the ball’s going in, it improves your defense, it makes it better; the bench is better; it makes the energy better in the game; it gets
confidence to other players.”
The Ducks’ shooting woes will be put to the test again this week as they travel south to take on Cal (11-6, 3-2 Pac-10) and Stanford (8-9, 2-3 Pac-10). The Pac-10 features only three teams with above .500 records in conference play — Arizona State, Cal, and USC — and with two road wins, Oregon could potentially be back near the top of the standings at the end of the week.
“We just got to grind it out, man,” Longmire said. “We’ve just got to make the tough plays. We have to.”
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