University of Oregon
13-6, 3-3
USC
9-9, 1-5
Ducks Hold Off USC, 75-67, To End Brief Skid
01/23/15 | Men's Basketball
by Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
EUGENE, Ore. — The Oregon men's basketball team ended a two-game slide by beating Southern California for the ninth straight time Thursday, as the Ducks beat the Trojans 75-67 before 5,652 in Matthew Knight Arena.
How It Happened: After squandering second-half leads at WSU and Washington a week earlier, the Ducks hit another dry patch after halftime Thursday. But this time Oregon rallied, scoring nine straight after the Trojans forged a 61-61 tie down the stretch. Elgin Cook put Oregon back up with three free throws, Dillon Brooks laid one in right-handed from the left side of the rim, and Joseph Young added two more free throws to give the Ducks some breathing room after the tie.
The Ducks came out firing, racing to a 16-2 lead with production from all five starters — the aforementioned trio plus post Jordan Bell and point guard Ahmaad Rorie. USC fought to within 19-14, but Oregon steadied the ship and led 44-31 at halftime. The lead was 50-35 before USC mounted a 13-2 run to get within 52-48, and the Trojans remained within shouting distance before tying it 61-61.
Who Stood Out: On a night when Oregon shot a collective .362, the Ducks' defense helped win the day. The Trojans hit at a .373 clip, as the Ducks improved to 10-0 this season when holding an opponent below 70 points. Bell blocked three more shots, giving him 66 in his freshman season, already eighth all-time on the UO career list. Bell also led the Ducks in both rebounds (13) and assists (four)
Offensively, Young struggled to find his shooting rhythm but still surpassed 1,000 career point at Oregon and finished with a team-high 19. Cook added 15, Brooks scored 12 and Jalil Abdul-Bassit led the bench with 11. Brooks and Cook combined to go 15-of-17 from the free-throw line, part of a 25-of-31 effort for Oregon overall; USC was just 11-of-18. Those performances were in line with season-long trends, as the Ducks led the Pac-12 in free-throw shooting entering the night, and the Trojans were last.
What It Means: Another second-half lead squandered would have been a blow to Oregon's confidence, but the Ducks (13-6, 3-3 Pac-12) showed some resiliency. This felt like a must-win game to some extent, and the UO men answered the call.
Quotable: "We had to find a way to win. I thought we had a good first half, thought our ball movement was really good, thought defensively our activity was really good. Second half, our defensive activity, first 10 minutes we gave up a lot of easy baskets again. So we're a work in progress. We've got a lot of work to do, more so on the defensive end, but we found a way to win." — UO coach Dana Altman
"We all started to dial in a little more (down the stretch). Joe told everyone to group together, talk a little more on defense. It all came down to communication." — Abdul-Bassit
"Coach wanted us to drive more, attack the hoop more and put pressure on them to foul us." — Brooks
Odds and Ends: The lineup of Young, Rorie, Brooks, Bell and Cook, which started its third straight game together, won for the first time ... USC shot free throws in the first half after Cook received a technical foul for tipping at a rebound while his other hand was on the rim. ... Brooks celebrated his 19th birthday Thursday.
Up Next: The Ducks host UCLA in Matthew Knight Arena on Saturday (1 p.m. PT, CBS).
