University of Oregon
9-3
UC Santa Barbara
5-6
Ducks Grind Out Win in OT Over UCSB
12/23/14 | Men's Basketball
EUGENE – Jalil Abdul-Bassit's seven points and a late steal by Casey Benson in overtime gave the Oregon men's basketball team its seventh-straight overtime victory Monday night over UC Santa Barbara 82-78 in front of a crowd of 5,396 at Matthew Knight Arena.
How It Happened: Oregon (9-3) led for most of the first half, thanks to Dillon Brooks' 10 points. Joseph Young added nine and gave Oregon its biggest lead, 30-19, of the half with a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 6:47 remaining.
UC Santa Barbara (5-6), however, came out of the break newly inspired and went on a 14-2 run before Dana Altman halted play with a timeout to regroup the Ducks. UCSB's trio of Michael Bryson, Alan Williams and John Green led the way, scoring 44 of the Gauchos' 48 points in the second-half and overtime period.
A 10-foot jumper sandwiched by two 3-pointers from Abdul-Bassit, coupled with a pair of free-throws from Young brought Oregon within 58-56 at the 9:36 mark. Young fired in back-to-back buckets from downtown to tie things up at 62 with 6:40 remaining and forced Gauchos' head coach Bob Williams to call a timeout.
UC Santa Barbara quickly regained the 69-66 lead with three minutes remaining at the media timeout. A put back from Michael Chandler followed by a layup from Benson gave Oregon the 70-69 lead with 1:29 left in regulation.
Young had a chance to seal the win in regulation with a pair of free throws with two seconds remaining, but missed the second to send it into overtime.
The Gauchos took a 78-75 lead with 2:41 remaining after Williams banked in back-to-back hook shots, but Abdul-Bassit had other thoughts on his mind. The senior guard scored Oregon's last seven points in overtime and secured the comeback win.
Who Stood Out: Something you won't find in the box score was Benson's crucial plays down the stretch both in regulation and the overtime period. The freshman finished with seven points on 3-of-5 shooting and two steals. The more crucial of the two came in overtime on a botched play that had him defending a 6-11 William's with 15 seconds remaining. That steal and free throws from Abdul-Bassit would seal the 82-78 victory.
By The Numbers: Young finished with 25 points and 11 boards to go with four assists. Abdul-Bassit added 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field -- 4 of which came from beyond the arc. Brooks finished with 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor and three blocks.
Game Notes: With the win, Oregon has now won seven-straight overtime games…The Ducks' last loss in OT was at UTEP 91-84 (3OT) on Dec. 19, 2012…UO's win evens the series against UCSB at 3-3…Still not even halfway through season, Jordan Bell is now among the top five for single-season blocked shots…His three tonight gave Bell 39 on the season to rank fifth…He passed Bob Fife (38/1990), Chris Christoffersen (38/2002) and Michael Dunigan (37/2010) during the UCSB game… Young recorded his first double-double as a Duck with 25 points and 11 rebounds…The 11 rebounds matched his career high set at Houston…Abdul-Bassit also had a career-best 20 points...The Ducks had to play without Brooks the last 6:10 minutes of the game along with the overtime period after the freshman fouled out.
Quotable: “Obviously it will only make us better as a team,” Benson said. “We just had to continue to make plays down the stretch and continue to keep fighting. We got a stop defensively, which was huge and we made free throws at the end.”
“The first five minutes of the second half just changed the whole ballgame,” Altman said. “Really poor defense gave them a lot of easy baskets there and really turned the whole game around. We were up 10 in the first half and we got down 12 there in the second half and were fortunate Jalil gae us eight in a row to get us back in the game.”
Up Next: The Ducks will have a week until they face another Big West team in UC Irvine at 8 p.m. on Dec. 9 at Matthew Knight Arena to wrap up their non-conference schedule.
