For more than 30 minutes on Thursday night, the Oregon men’s basketball team struggled in most every facet of the game.
Turnovers kept the Ducks out of rhythm offensively, poor perimeter defense paved the way for a great shooting night for Big Sky opponent Eastern Washington, and missed free throws made for an interesting game in what should have been a runaway second-half victory.
“Those are things that are focus and discipline,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “Those are things that we’re not doing right now. Our focus defensively at times was not very good. We made a lot of defensive mistakes tonight that allowed them to get open looks.”
But for a brief minute, Oregon (1-1) was able to capitalize on a pair of costly mistakes and held on the rest of the way to claim its first victory of the season, 73-65, over the Eastern Washington Eagles in front of 6,096 at Matthew Knight Arena.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=235&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205335428@@
With 5:37 remaining in the second half and Oregon desperate for anything in the way of offense, sophomore point guard Johnathan Loyd came in with a major spark off the bench.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=204965535@@
Much to the same degree as his performance in the Ducks’ season opener against then-No. 7 Vanderbilt last Friday, the 5-foot-8 speedster drove the key and finished at the basket to put Oregon ahead 60-58. Loyd then picked off the ensuing inbounds pass and found a cutting Garrett Sim for an easy layup, before Oregon forced a five-second call as the Eagles turned the ball back over.@@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=235&SPSID=4294@@
After a quick Eastern Washington timeout, Sim knocked down a three-pointer from the right corner, and in a matter of 23 seconds Oregon had its largest lead of the night at 65-58.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to find a way to win,” said Loyd, who finished with nine points, three assists and three steals. “We just picked up our energy on D (and) used the press to create turnovers. We can make layups, so that’s what we tried to get.”@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=235&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205335428@@
By that point, Altman had all his veterans on the court — Sim, Loyd, E.J. Singler and Tyrone Nared — along with freshman Jabari Brown and each of the four returners made a pair of free throws down the stretch that accounted for the Ducks’ final eight points of the game.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4295&SPID=235&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205185544&Q_SEASON=2011@@
Sim finished with a game-high 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting, while Nared added 15 points and seven rebounds off the bench.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=235&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205335428@@
Before the final three minutes, Oregon struggled tremendously from the free-throw line and finished the game 28-of-44 (63 percent) and committed more than 20 turnovers for the second straight game.@@same@@
“We need to focus at the line,” Sim said. “We definitely can’t miss as many free throws as we did last game and this game, but I think that will come, definitely.”
Oregon went nearly three minutes without a field goal to open the second half before Sim made a layup in transition to bring the Ducks within six.
A few minutes later, junior Carlos Emory saved the ball from going out of bounds and threw it back to guard Bruce Barron near the top of the key. In a split second, Barron rifled a pass to Olu Ashaolu on the block for a huge one-handed slam that brought the Ducks within three, 43-40.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4295&SPID=235&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205185541&Q_SEASON=2011@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4295&SPID=235&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205185496&Q_SEASON=2011@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4295&SPID=235&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205185494&Q_SEASON=2011@@
“I think Bruce and Johnny, their passion and looking for open receivers, was definitely the difference in us getting started,” Altman said. “We were kind of stuck in the mud there.”
Oregon had 13 giveaways to Eastern Washington’s five in the opening 20 minutes of play, which aided the Eagles in attempting 16 more field goals (14-of-39) than the Ducks (10-of-23).
The Eagles’ perimeter shooting proved to be the difference in the opening half, as the visitors converted on seven of their first 11 attempts from beyond the arc, but went cold in the second half (2-of-12).
Eastern Washington’s senior guard Cliff Colimon paced the Eagles with 14 points and five rebounds and Tremayne Johnson added 12 points and seven rebounds off the bench.@@http://goeags.com/sports/m-baskbl/2010-11/bios/Cliff%20Colimon@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=235&SPSID=4295@@
The Ducks return to Matthew Knight Arena when they host Southeast Missouri State Sunday at 2 p.m.@@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=235&SPSID=4294@@