Senior guard Ehab Amin has had his ups and downs this season, but the lowest point may have come when he played zero minutes during Saturday’s game against UCLA, days after he only got five minutes against USC.
“I was hoping for Ehab it would be a better year,” head coach Dana Altman said during media this week. “He’s shown a lot of class and really tried to help the team whenever he can.”
But in his second to last home game, he was one of two unlikely players who helped the Ducks blow out Arizona State 79-51. Amin and forward Francis Okoro tipped the scales in Oregon’s favor, giving the Ducks an extra push while Louis King and Payton Pritchard scored 19 and 18 points, respectively.
The Ducks’ first offensive play of the second half was a sign of things to come. Pritchard drove to the lane and hit a rolling Kenny Wooten for an alley-oop. Arizona State’s defensive breakdown gave the Ducks an easy basket — rinse and repeat.
Already up by eight at the half, Oregon went on a 22-8 run over the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Freshman Francis Okoro grabbed rebounds left and right. His career-high was seven rebounds, and in the first six minutes of the second half he secured six rebounds.
But his impact on the boards stemmed from work he put in earlier in the game. He only grabbed two rebounds in the first half, but he got the Sun Devils’ two bigs in foul trouble. Forward Romello White had three fouls after the first half and De’Quan Lake had two. Okoro capitalized off their hesitant game in the second half.
“Francis has been practicing so well, it has given him some confidence cause he knows he’s working his tail off,” Altman said. “He hits a couple more free throws and he has a heck of a game.”
Arizona State averages the most rebounds per game in the Pac-12, but the Ducks were the ones who dominated the boards 44-26. Okoro finished with a career-high 10 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Amin contributed in his own ways. The senior has struggled offensively this season, but tonight his 11 points on 50 percent shooting was more than enough. He had a beautiful assist to Wooten for a dunk. He drove in the paint, attracted defenders and hit a cutting Wooten on the baseline with a bounce pass.
But some of his impact in the game is not in his stat line. He helped Oregon play some of its best defense of the season.
While the Ducks were on their run, Arizona State was ice cold. The Sun Devils missed their first eight shots of the half on their way to shooting 32 percent in the game.
“I thought our energy was good,” Altman said. “Our activity was good. Our communication was a lot better in that second half. … I didn’t think we gave them a lot of good looks.”
Oregon emerged from the run up 58-34 and held steady from there.
The Pac-12 continues to be a mess. Oregon just crushed the team in second, first-place Washington lost to previously 0-15 Cal and third-place Oregon State lost to Arizona at home.
Altman and co. stated they are not looking ahead to the Pac-12 tournament, but they did not deny it’s the time of year to build momentum. Oregon plays Arizona on Saturday, and it’s that time of year.
“It’s March; every game is huge,” Amin said.