It finally happened. 

The No. 12 Oregon Ducks (10-1, 1-1 Big Ten) took home its 10th victory of the year in a blow out over the Stephen F. Austin State University Lumberjacks (5-6, 0-2 Southland) in a game where the Ducks led the whole way. 

In a season that’s been characterized by Oregon’s innate ability to climb back into contests after finding itself down, a blow out win is incredibly welcome, especially at this point in the season. 

Helped by Brandon Angel’s 11 first half points on perfect 3-3 shooting, Oregon was able to jump out to a lead early, which it would never concede. Angel’s 11 turned to a team-high 15 by the end of the night, and the senior forward was aided by 14 point performances from Supreme Cook and Jadrian Tracey and 13 points from star center Nate Bittle in his 18 minutes before fouling out. 

The Ducks stuck to plan the whole way. 

Oregon has achieved the majority of its success through getting to the basket before trying to open up the game beyond the arc. In the previous few games, the Ducks’ early reliance on the three pointer came back to bite them, as this team cannot afford to always live and die by the three. 

Not with talent like Angel’s and Bittle’s. 

Angel’s play epitomized the first half for the Ducks. Four of his 11 points came from the free throw line, and Oregon took 16 before the opening frame ended — the Lumberjacks took just one. 

Overall, the Ducks shot 69% from the free throw line on Sunday night, and it fueled the victory for head coach Dana Altman’s squad who shot 32 shots from the charity stripe in total. All nine players that entered the game for the Lumberjacks registered a foul, and eight of those nine registered more than one foul. 

Oregon also displayed great discipline defensively, as the Ducks only gave up a total of 11 foul shots. Coupled with SFA’s 40% shooting from the field, the Lumberjacks were lethargic on offense while Oregon’s defense flourished. 

Once SFA started fouling enough, it backed off in the paint, which allowed Oregon to tally easy points. However, that caused the Lumberjacks’ defense to collapse as the ball went inside, which the Ducks responded to by finally kicking it out and attempting more threes. 

Oregon shot 4-10 from deep in the first half and 3-9 in the second, which was good for 37%. 

The Ducks did enough early on to pile on a sizable advantage, and once that lead packed on, Oregon’s experience helped it maintain control the rest of the way. 

One glaring issue remained apparent, however — the turnover margin. Even in an 18-point domination, Oregon almost lost the turnover battle after accruing 10 in the first compared to SFA’s nine. The only reason the Ducks stayed ahead despite this was the 11-2 margin that the Ducks had on points off those turnovers. 

At the end of the contest, Oregon finished with 19 turnovers, while SFA turned it over 22 times. 19 turnovers will, more often than not, become a primary reason why this team might lose a game down the road. 

As the Ducks enter conference play, they cannot afford to be this sloppy, but for tonight, it is significantly more than good enough. 

The 79-61 scoreline does tell a great deal of the story at the end of the day. 

Oregon moves on and faces Stanford on Saturday in the San Jose Tip-Off at the SAP Center in San Jose, CA.