Portland native Salim Stoudamire and the rest of the 13th-ranked Arizona basketball team showed that experience is vital in the Pacific-10 Conference.
The Wildcats came to McArthur Court Thursday night, and with the help of a 16-0 run late in the first, they catapulted past the Ducks 74-66.
Led by Stoudamire’s 27 points and fellow senior Channing Frye’s 17 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots, Arizona (14-3 overall, 4-1 Pac-10) won its 13th game in its last 14 contests.
“I feel like we came out a little timid,” Oregon freshman Bryce Taylor, who had an Oregon game-high 20 points, said. “For some reason, we might have been a little intimidated.”
Oregon (11-4, 3-3) head coach Ernie Kent said his young squad — with two freshmen, two sophomores and a junior in the starting lineup — was outmatched defensively early in the game.
“Those freshmen got lost on curl screens, they forgot to help and got beat on backdoor (plays),” Kent said. “These veteran players are crafty that they are playing against, and they really make them pay when they have those mental breakdowns.”
The game was tight early in the first half, and Oregon’s early offense came down low with Mitch Platt scoring six of Oregon’s first nine points. With 11:09 left to play in the half, Oregon would hold its biggest lead of the game at three points, 20-17.
But Stoudamire caught fire and made back-to-back three-pointers with defenders’ hands right in his face to ignite a 16-0 run that Oregon would never recover from. Stoudamire scored 20 of his 27 points in the first half.
“We were playing a very good basketball game,” Kent said. “The score was 20-20, and we had a good inside-outside game going, but we stopped going inside and took a couple of rushed shots.
“They got out in transition and put an 11 or 12-point lead on us, and that was the difference in the game.”
The Ducks made a run in the second half and closed within two points with 8:26 left in the game, but couldn’t quite make it all the way back.
Arizona’s veteran team held off the Ducks for the rest of the game with Ivan Radenovic’s three-pointer from the top of the key with 2:31 remaining, giving the Wildcats an eight-point lead and dashing all Oregon hopes of a comeback.
Arizona head coach Lute Olson said despite Oregon’s youth, the Wildcats respected and were prepared for the team’s young talent.
“Brooks is a load at the point guard position,” Olson said. “We tried to limit the number of looks Taylor got, and (Malik) Hairston is tough too. They just missed some shots they normally would’ve knocked down.”
Olson added that it will be a lot tougher for Oregon’s younger players when they visit the Wildcats next month.
“Youth is usually not as much of a problem at home as it is on the road,” Olson said. “So we’ll see how they react to the McKale Center.”

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