For the first time since Jan 21, Oregon men’s basketball was victorious, but was still unable to play a solid 40 minutes. 

It’s not a win the Ducks (17-8, 6-8 Big Ten) should feel great about after allowing Northwestern (13-12, 4-10 Big Ten) to whittle their 14-point halftime lead down to three in the closing minutes, but they were quenching for a win and they got one, 81-75. 

Since beating Washington almost a month ago, things had been going concerningly poor for Dana Altman’s squad. Across the Ducks’ recent five-game skid, they gave up at least 77 points. A key part to getting back on track was limiting Northwestern to 75 on Tuesday night. 

The other key was relying on Jackson Shelstad and Nate Bittle and allowing them to rediscover their groove against an inferior opponent. Shelstad had a much-needed solid night, recording a career-high 26 points and four assists while shooting 4-6 from deep. Bittle had a get-back game of his own as he tallied 14 points and seven rebounds.

“We’re just happy to get back in the win column,” Shelstad said. “ It got a little ugly at the end of the game. I think we definitely need to work on playing a full 40 minutes of basketball at our best level. We got the win and we just gotta keep the momentum going from here.”

Neither team got off to an overly impressive start, but the contest was competitive for the majority of the first half. Both teams traded runs — Shelstad scored five straight before Northwestern responded with a 7-0 run.

A 3-pointer from Northwestern’s Keenan Fitzmorris gave the Wildcats their first lead of the night, but Shelstad and Keeshawn Barthelemy connected for back-to-back threes to regain the lead and some temporary momentum. 

That was the main theme of the opening frame: neither team was able to demonstrate any real dominance or separation. Even after Bittle and Shelstad connected from deep on back-to-back possessions , Northwestern responded to keep it close. 

A pair of Brandon Angel layups (his entire first-half total) extended Oregon’s lead to 10, a nearly four-minute scoring drought allowed the Ducks to take advantage of a 9-0 run to take a 39-25 lead into the break. 

It helped that Northwestern shot a measly 38.5% from the field and 30% from deep in the opening half. Every single Wildcat was in the minus through the first 20 minutes. 

Oregon, a team that lives or dies by its ability to shoot 3-pointers, finished the first half 5-12 after the hot start. It was a concerning decline that, unfortunately, followed the Ducks back onto the court for the second half. 

Barthelemy (19 points) tried to rewrite the narrative, knocking down the Ducks’ first deep attempt of the closing frame. However, Northwestern started the second half 6-8 from the field and just wouldn’t go away. 

After Barthelemy’s dagger, Oregon went ice-cold from deep and finished 8-21 from range after starting 4-5. 

“We were just getting really good inside-out threes at the beginning of the game,” Shelstad said. “We just got to do a good job of keeping attacking, getting to the paint and kicking out for open threes.”

The Wildcats closely resembled Oregon from the Ducks’ loss to Nebraska a few weeks back; they were good enough to keep the game close, but were never in any real danger of winning it. 

Despite Ty Berry (who led the Wildcats with 23 points) guiding Northwestern to 61.8% shooting in the second half, Oregon was able to temporarily maintain its comfortable lead, unlike its second-half collapse just three days ago in East Lansing. 

Free-throw shooting has repeatedly plagued the Ducks throughout the season, but they had a good night from the line, shooting 25-28 and 21-24 in the second half. 

“I’m not disappointed in our 81 points,” Altman said. “I’m just disappointed in our second-half defense.”

Northwestern made it close a couple of times late in the contest, pulling within five with five minutes left, and again with under three to play. Oregon’s timely free-throw shooting and the occasional basket kept the Wildcats at bay, but a better opponent could have easily unraveled the Ducks’ lead. 

The final minutes of the game were as slow as they come, full of fouls and free throws and timeouts. At the end, however, Oregon came away with an unsavory 81-75 win. 

Shelstad went to the line in the closing seconds and hit a pair of free throws to record a new career-high 26 points. 

“I’m confident in my shot,” Shelstad said. “My coaches and teammates are confident in my shot. I just try to play with full confidence… Also, credit to my teammates for getting me open, too.”

While not a perfect night, Oregon hopes the performance will be enough to create some good mojo to take into its Sunday matchup against Rutgers. 

“I’m happy we got the win,” Shelstad said. “ After a few losses, I think it’s just big for our confidence.”