Oregon men’s basketball defeated the Arizona State Sun Devils 75-64 on Thursday night in Tempe, Arizona.
The game marked the first for the Sun Devils since Jan. 30 due to COVID-19 protocol. To make matters worse, Arizona State was without four forwards: Marcus Bagley, Chris Osten, Pavlo Dziuba and Taeshon Cherry.
Despite the rustiness and lack of size from Arizona State, Oregon was unable to capitalize in the first half. Missed layups, bad passes and turnovers were plentiful for the Ducks as the teams were knotted at 19 with 10 minutes left.
Midway through the first half, Chris Duarte, who’d hit his first three shots in the game, checked back in and took over. He hit three-straight shots and was able to get his teammates involved when he was double teamed.
Oregon went on an 11-0 run, taking a 30-19 lead over the Sun Devils. He led the team with 18 first-half points, despite being questionable to even play after a leg injury during last week’s game against Washington State.
“He did a tremendous job getting himself ready by training every day,” head coach Dana Altman said. “I was surprised at how good he looked.”
Just before the half, it was time for the other senior all-American point guard in the game to take over: Remy Martin. Martin hit a few from downtown and made a few more three-point plays to energize the Sun Devils.
Martin’s 17 first-half points kept the Sun Devils close at halftime, down 35-28.
The Ducks started the second half on a 9-2 run giving them a double-digit lead, a margin they would maintain for most of the second half. Oregon began to see new contributions besides Duarte as Will Richardson and LJ Figueroa found their groove.
The Ducks grew their lead to 17 with ten minutes left.
“We’ve had guys out all year with COVID and it’s been a next-man-up mentality all season,” said Figueroa. “We’re getting better and better each game, and as long as we stay together, we’ll be good.”
Just as the Sun Devils seemed to fade away, Martin stepped up once again, knocking down a pair of threes leading to a 10-0 Sun Devil run with five minutes left. Martin, the Pac-12’s leading in-conference scorer, finished with 30 points.
Arizona State decreased the deficit to seven points, but it was too little, too late. Oregon turned to their senior leaders Duarte and Eugene Omoruyi to make the right decisions and lead the team to victory in crunch time. Both finished with 18 points.
With the win, Oregon improves their record to 11-4 which is just one game in the loss column behind the first-place USC Trojans. With the loss, Arizona State falls to 6-9 on the year and 3-6 at home.
The Ducks look to remain in the hunt for a Pac-12 title, and a March Madness berth as they take on the Arizona Wildcats on Feb. 13 in Tucson.
