The Oregon men’s basketball team saw its losing streak extend to five straight games after falling 84-69 to the Stanford Cardinal (10-9, 4-3 Pacific-10) on Saturday night. The Ducks (10-9, 2-5 Pac-10) have lost 24 straight games against Stanford at Maples Pavilion with their last win coming on Jan. 13, 1986.
Oregon’s defensive woes continued as Cardinal senior Landry Fields and sophomore Jeremy Green combined for 57 points against the Duck backcourt. Standing at 6 feet 7 inches and 6 feet 4 inches, respectively, Fields and Green had no problem imposing their will against the much smaller Oregon defenders.
“We gave ’em great confidence (because) Green hit some tough shots and Fields got going early when he attacked the rim,” Oregon senior Tajuan Porter told The Register-Guard.
Fields finished with a career-best 32 points, shooting 9 of 15 from the floor and 14 of 19 from the free throw line. He also pulled down eight boards to go along with his five assists, three blocks and two steals. Green on the other hand, used a 3-of-4 shooting night from beyond the arc and 8-of-12 from the field to finish with 25 points, while playing a team-high 37 minutes.
“It’s a double-digit loss because two great players had great games, and we missed some scoring opportunities,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “It’s going to kind of be the same old story; we have an opportunity to make some plays that we’re not making.”
Oregon jumped out to an early 2-0 lead off of a LeKendric Longmire basket, but after two scores from Fields and Green over the next three minutes, the men in green and yellow never saw the lead again. The Ducks finished the first half shooting 37 percent (10-of-27). Sophomore Malcolm Armstead, though, provided some offensive production in the early going as he chipped in eight points and a season-high four steals in the opening 20 minutes.
Up by just nine at halftime, Stanford used a 15-4 run in the opening six minutes of the second half to open a 20-point advantage. Fields and Green combined to score all but two of those points.
“We’re not that type of team right now where we can come back,” Oregon junior LeKendric Longmire said. “So, we’ve got to do what we need to do to stay in the games early.”
Longmire corralled a team-high seven rebounds on the night to go with his eight points.
The big three offensive threats for Oregon were held in check throughout the night. Armstead finished with 12 points, Porter with 16 and sophomore Michael Dunigan was held scoreless from the field, but hit two of his four free throws and grabbed no rebounds.
“I’ve got to get those three guys playing at the same time,” Kent said. “When we do, we’re pretty good offensively.”
Fourteen of Porter’s points came in the final four minutes of the game, connecting on three desperation three-pointers in the final 80 seconds. Sophomore Jeremy Jacob also chipped in 11 points off the bench for the Ducks and pulled five boards in his 20 minutes of work.
Oregon’s 25-of-60 shooting effort was the highest percentage outing in four games (41.7). The Ducks won the battle in the paint 34-22, as well as bench points 29-16, but recorded 10 less free throw attempts (19) than Cardinal makes (29).
“We’ve got to toughen up defensively, that’s where the game got away from us,” Porter said. “We’re going to get our offense, but we’ve got to get stops. We let two guys get away from us.”
Oregon will now return home for two tough matchups against the Southern California schools. The Ducks will host UCLA on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. and USC at 3 p.m. Saturday.
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