From the opening tip at Matthew Knight Arena, Oregon men’s basketball let the Badgers burrow themselves from behind the arc. It never bothered digging them back out.
That isn’t to say the Ducks (11-17, 4-13 Big Ten) just let the Badgers (19-9, 11-6 Big Ten) fire at will to start last night’s 85-71 win; in fact, they halted Wisconsin’s early momentum after the Badgers went 2-for-3 from deep to start and forced them to go 2-for-10 on their next ten 3-pointers. Center Nate Bittle keyed Oregon’s second-half defensive effort, which parlayed with transition points to push the Ducks into a win in their second-to-last home game of the season.
“Slow start to the game,” head coach Dana Altman said.“We gave up 21 points early, I didn’t think we were bouncing around at all.”
The Badgers shot 6-for-21 from deep in the first half, and an abysmal 14-for-45 by the final whistle. The 45 attempted 3-pointers is their school record.
Wisconsin ran a five-out offense for most of its possessions, keeping all of its players on the 3-point line ready to receive the ball on drive-and-kicks, which contributed to their high volume of outside shots. They also ran a lot of pick-and-rolls, which led to passes out to the three-point line, but Oregon was scrappy and slipped off screens and closed out on shooters.
“I thought our bigs did a good job, our guards did a better job getting through those screens,” Altman said. “They set a lot of ball screens, and (Nicholas) Boyd and (John) Blackwell are as good a backcourt as you have in our league, thought our guys did a great job getting through those screens.”
The Ducks’ defense had some strong moments throughout the first half, including a 5-minute scoring drought for the Badgers, which allowed them to slowly claw their way back to keep things close heading into halftime. During that stretch, Oregon held things down in the paint, with Kwame Evans Jr. blocking two shots.
In the second half, the Ducks managed to strip the ball four times in the opening minutes and get easy transition baskets, which was just what they needed to kickstart a comeback in the middle of the second half. Bittle led Oregon in steals; he finished the game with three, two of which came in that second-half push.
“Nate was in those gaps, knees bent, and got a lot of deflections [and] steals which turned into points,” Altman said.
“It was a great defensive team effort,” Bittle said postgame. “We were in the gaps when Boyd and Blackwell were trying to drive, and we had a lot of deflections, a bunch of fake covers and had them picking up their dribble.”
While Wisconsin shot better from deep in the second half, going 8-22, it wasn’t enough to contend with Oregon, which picked up the pace on offense. That strong defensive push in the later part of the game led to 15 fast break points, which were tacked on to the massive onslaught coming from the Ducks’ end in the second half.
“Eight steals that turned into transition points for us, which we hadn’t been getting — that’s why we scored 55 points, just our activity defensively,” Altman said.
The Ducks finished the game, only allowing one made shot in the final minute, after going on a strong scoring tear, which helped them close out a strong 85-71 win over a tournament-hopeful team.
Oregon heads on the road for its penultimate game of the regular season, against Northwestern on Feb. 28. Tipoff is set for 11 a.m. PT.
