Momentum is a fickle thing: hard to quantify and even harder to describe. But it is a tangible concept and Oregon’s win Saturday night over the USC Trojans was the perfect example of how momentum works.
In the second half, Oregon was up 47-38 with 8:21 to go in the game when USC went on a 9-0 run to tie the game at 47 with 5:44 left. The Trojans were rolling, with Dwight Lewis leading the way with 16 points.
Then the momentum shift happened. Senior Tajuan Porter hit a jumper to give the Ducks a 49-47 lead and USC forward Nikola Vucevic missed a three-pointer on the other end. On the rebound, which Teondre Williams grabbed, the trailing referee stopped, blew his whistle and gave a technical to the USC bench. The entire bench looked at each other in astonishment, looking for the culprit. After some discussion, it was discovered third-year graduate manager Stan Holt was the person on the end of the bench yelling obscenities. That was according to Trojan head coach Kevin O’Neill, who proceeded to yell at Holt at the next two dead balls and then kick him off the bench for the last four minutes of the game.
“The referee told me he was screaming obscenities at him,” O’Neill said. “That’s on me and that will be rectified. It already has been. That’s unacceptable. If somebody is going to get a technical foul, it’s going to be me. That’s incomprehensible to me in a two-point game that our manager would get a technical foul.”
Porter hit the two free throws from the technical and guard Malcolm Armstead was fouled on the next possession by Lewis, and Armstead converted on his free throws. In less than a minute the Ducks had a four point swing and hit four more free throws over the next two minutes to cap the 10-0 run to put the game away.
“We were on a run and it ended up being a four-point play,” O’Neill said. “That’s unfortunate for our team. We played really hard in the second half and Oregon played a great game. We struggled to get the job done.”
After the game, O’Neill could be heard yelling from the visitor’s locker room about Holt, while the manager paced in the hallway. O’Neill insinuated that he was going to fire Holt, backed off this statement, then, according to the Orange County Register, proceeded to fire him officially.
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said the technical was a big moment just from the standpoint that it gave Porter the confidence to keep shooting.
“I think it affected it in a way that T.P. was able to make some free throws and get going,” said Kent. “They had come right back up on us and we weren’t playing that well offensively, but you didn’t feel like the game had gotten away from us. I don’t want to say two free throws changed it.”
It was a disappointing weekend for the Trojans, who also lost to the Beavers on Thursday night.
“We don’t shoot the ball well from the outside,” O’Neill said. “We don’t shoot it well against zone, man, triangle-and-two, box-and-one, full-court press. We don’t have consistent outside shooting that allows us to get people out of the zone.”
The Trojans shot 41.1 percent for the game, as for the second straight game, Oregon’s new zone defense stymied its opponent. It was a beefed-up matchup zone that Kent put in a couple days prior to Thursday night’s win against UCLA. Armstead, who finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists, said it forces the team to help on defense.
“Our zone allows us to help one another more than the man because we know in man, we have to rotate a lot, but in the zone we have to rotate,” he said. “There’s no questions asked, when the ball is moved, you have to rotate.”
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