Oregon men’s basketball is rolling into the new year with a Pac-12 home opener win against the California Bears, 82-69.
12 days after its last game, Oregon looked to shake off the rust against the Golden Bears in a New Year’s Eve clash at home. Prior to Thursday’s game, the Ducks won six straight since its season-opening loss to Missouri, along with being 1-0 in Pac-12 play.
With Oregon’s N’Faly Dante out for the season with an ACL tear, Will Richardson still sidelined with a thumb injury, backup point guard Jalen Terry unavailable and newly eligible Franck Kepnang now on the active roster, the Ducks continue to reshuffle their rotations and lineups.
Cal also came into Eugene with injuries of their own.
Golden Bears forward Grant Anticevich was out with an emergency appendectomy on Dec. 18, but their leading scorer Matt Bradley was back in the starting lineup after he missed the last two games with an ankle injury.
The Pac-12’s leading scorer did not skip a beat against the Ducks with 15 points in the first half paired with going 4-for-5 from beyond the arc. Bradley, and the rest of the Golden Bears, came out blazing on offense, keeping the score close and taking their first lead 27-26 late in the first half.
“That first half tonight I thought we took a step back and really gave up some easy baskets,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “They made a couple tough ones, but a couple of them we really messed up switches and went under screens.”
The Ducks struggled at first on offense against Cal’s zone defense, but the last twenty seconds of the first half gave the Ducks a huge momentum swing going into the locker room. Oregon took the lead back at the buzzer with an Aaron Estrada one-legged 3-pointer for a one point lead, 36-35.
To start the second half, Oregon went on a short 6-0 run to continue the momentum, but the Golden Bears stayed close and kept the game at bay. Oregon attempted to pull away with its biggest lead, 62-55, with 8:10 left in the game, but the Golden Bears continued to stick around.
After a hot first half start, Bradley cooled down in the second half with only six points, but led the Golden Bears in scoring with 21 points.
Oregon’s Eugene Omoruyi had a solid all-around game for the Ducks: he took charges, dove for out-of-bounds loose balls, made the extra pass and finished as the game’s leading scorer with 26 points and a career-high five steals. He dominated both sides of the floor with his 26 points on just 14 shots and grabbed six rebounds.
“Being able to go home and see family really just helped me lock back in,” Omoyuri said. “Sometimes I get a bit homesick, so being able to go home and just seeing my family happy and knowing why you’re playing — it really helped me refresh myself.”
The Ducks extended their largest lead of the game, 71-62, with just over four minutes left in regulation. Oregon’s Chris Duarte’s back-to-back 3-pointers were two-of-the-three three’s that contributed to Oregon’s nine point lead. Duarte continued to fire from three with two more and ended with a ferocious 50% from the perimeter for 14 points in the last four minutes.
“No doubt, Eugene’s three and Chris’s three threes gave us that separation,” Altman said.
With a late second half pull away, Oregon extended its consecutive game winning streak to 27 at home and is the fourth-longest active home win streak in the nation. Altman passed a feat himself, passing Louisville’s Denny Crum for 23rd in NCAA Division I career coaching with 676 wins.
The Ducks will kick off 2021 with a home game against Stanford on Jan. 2, followed by a road trip to the mountain schools, Colorado and Utah, the week after.
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