The Oregon men’s basketball team fell to the Portland Pilots Saturday night at the Chiles Center, snapping Oregon’s three-game winning streak that started its season.
Portland (3-0), shot 52.5 percent from the field and 57.9 percent from the three-point line to stop the Ducks.
Oregon (3-1) was led in scoring by sophomore Malcolm Armstead with 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting. Senior Tajuan Porter added 15 points and sophomore Teondre Williams finished with 13 points.
The Ducks shot 45.1 percent from the field, but in the end it was a 15-1 run for Portland to start the second half that doomed Oregon. The Ducks were up 45-39 to start the second half, but Pilot guard T.J. Campbell hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to 45-42. Oregon forward LeKendric Longmire added a free throw to push the lead to 46-42. However, the Pilots reeled off 10 straight points to take a 52-46 lead with 16:28 left in the game.
The next eight minutes, Oregon fought to within five points on a few occasions, but big three-pointers by Portland always sustained the lead. Then with 7:52 to go in the game, Armstead hit a three to put Oregon to within two points. After a Luke Sikma layup, Williams followed with another three to cut the Pilot lead to 68-67 with 7:04 in the game.
Two free throws from freshman E.J. Singler actually put Oregon up 69-68 with just less than seven minutes to go, and a three by Armstead gave Oregon a 72-70 lead with five minutes to play. But on the play, Longmire committed a foul and two of Robin Smeulders’ free throws tied the game. Over the next three minutes, Portland expanded its lead to seven points, before stretching it to 10 in the closing seconds.
For Portland, Nik Raivio led all scorers with 24 points and eight rebounds. Smeulders added 17 points, Campbell had 16 points and five assists and forward Ethan Niedermeyer had 11 points.
Next up for Oregon is a game tonight against the Montana Grizzlies at home. The Grizzlies are 3-1 but just lost to Denver on Nov. 19. The game starts at 7 p.m. at McArthur Court.
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