In the first of 29 games the Ducks will play this season in their defense of the men’s basketball Pacific-10 Conference title, they defined the one word from this sentence that will help them most to that goal.
Defense.
With Oregon’s offense sputtering early Sunday night — something head coach Ernie Kent said he expected because he kept his team’s running to a minimum in practice this week, anticipating back-to-back games — the Ducks turned to their defense. That defense allowed Oregon to pull away and the Ducks beat Grambling State, 97-52, in their first game of the John Thompson Challenge at McArthur Court.
“If we can get teams to miss shots, that keys the kind of game we want to play,” Kent said.
Oregon’s James Davis hit seven three-pointers, one shy of the school record. He and Luke Ridnour led Oregon’s offensive effort with 21 points each, while Ridnour added nine assists and five steals.
“It’s an up-and-down game,” Davis said. “Everybody’s going to have their days.”
Kent said he would have given the ball to Davis — whose last three-pointer came with 14:20 left in the game — more had he known he was so close to the record.
“You should have told me that,” Kent said, grinning, to reporters in the media room after the game. “If we had known that, and if it had been within our offensive system, we would have given him an opportunity.”
Oregon tied a school record with 17 steals against the Tigers, who will play in the Challenge’s consolation game at 5 p.m., while the Ducks moved to the championship game to play California-State Northridge at 7:30 p.m.
“It’s good to get our season going,” Davis said. “It felt good to get our rhythm and our confidence up.”
Oregon didn’t hit its rhythm until midway through the first half Sunday night, when the Ducks’ defense keyed the team to a 16-2 run that ended with Oregon leading 32-15. The Tigers scored on back-to-back possessions only twice in the first half.
It wasn’t until the second half that the Ducks went on an offensive run like the ones that they showed in two preseason blowouts, but when it came, the Oregon fans loved it. The Ducks scored fast-break buckets on five consecutive possessions early in the second half.
“We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Ridnour said. “It was fun to get a chance to get out there.”
If there was one area of concern for the Ducks after Sunday’s victory, it was in the rebounding category. Oregon was outrebounded 51-48 by a team with a roster that included one 6-foot-9-inch player and two 6-foot-8-inch players as its tallest members.
“We’ve got to block out more,” Ridnour said. “We’ve got make that an emphasis, because that keys our whole running game.”
Davis, listed at 5-feet-10 inches, led the Ducks’ rebounding effort along with forward Robert Johnson. Both players had seven rebounds.
But the Ducks, who held the Tigers to 26-percent shooting on the night, were more excited about their defense than worried about their rebounding.
And as the team unfurled last season’s Pac-10 Championship banner before the game, Oregon proved that defense will be key to the defense of that title.