Coming into Tuesday night’s game against UTEP, Oregon’s leading scorer, senior shooting guard Garrett Sim, was averaging 14 points through the Ducks’ first four games.@@stats online already updated to 11.6: http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205335431@@
He didn’t score a single point until making two free throws with 7.9 seconds left in the game, sealing the Ducks’ 64-59@@see previous@@ victory over the Miners at Matthew Knight Arena.
Apart from sophomore point guard Johnathan Loyd’s@@roster@@ career-high 24-point performance,@@see previous@@ Oregon’s backcourt of Sim, junior Carlos Emory@@roster@@ and freshman Brett Kingma@@roster@@ stumbled through the game, making just one of 13 shots — an Emory three-pointer — and scoring just seven points on the night.
But the Ducks were able to overcome their poor outside shooting with solid interior play by forcing turnovers from the Miners.
“You’re going to have those nights, but that’s where defense and rebounding pick you up,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman@@CE@@ said. “Getting out-rebounded and having the other team shoot 60 percent in the second half, those are stats that I’m unhappy to see right there.”
The Miners focused on aggressively defending Sim, giving an opportunity for Loyd to be more aggressive offensively.
“They came out and face-guarded Garrett and wouldn’t let him touch the ball, trying to make him work for it,” Loyd said. “I just took the opportunity I saw, and it happened to be me scoring tonight.”
Oregon’s backcourt struggles were exacerbated after freshman Bruce Barron@@roster@@ became the second new recruit to leave the team this season, joining fellow freshman guard Jabari Brown.@@roster@@ Altman said the door was not open for either player to return, and he plans on finishing the season with the 13 players currently on his roster. Minnesota transfer Devoe Joseph@@roster@@ will become eligible to play for the Ducks in early December, which should help to fill the playing time vacated by both players’ departures.
“Bruce has left the team. I won’t say anything more on it,” Altman said. “He was quite a ways behind the rest of the team, because he missed so many practices due to injuries.”
Barron missed the team’s trip to Italy with a knee injury and was also absent during many of its preseason practices as he recovered from a concussion.
Loyd said the Ducks could have used Barron’s effort to get the team more energized early in the game as it struggled to a 33 percent shooting performance in the first half before the offense clicked. Oregon’s up-tempo offense was in direct contrast to UTEP’s — the Ducks only got to under 10 seconds in the shot clock one time, which was on the final possession of the first half — and the home team struggled at times to keep up its defensive effort against the methodical Miners.
“We missed his energy, though. That’s one thing we missed,” Loyd said. “He would have got us ready. That was one thing he was good at.”
Poor performance from leading scorer Garrett Sim doesn’t stop Oregon from beating UTEP
Kenny Ocker
November 28, 2011
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