By Spencer Orofino and AJ Untermeyer
It was another night to remember in Eugene as Pac-12 front-runner Oregon held off Washington to bring home an 81-76 Duck victory in front of a sold out crowd of 12,364 at Matthew Knight Arena.
Due to a foot injury, Freshman Guard Dominic Artis did not play tonight, and is expected to miss significant playing time as the season progresses, forcing Oregon’s Willie Moore to step up and fill in.
“He did great. He gave us a lot of energy in the first 12 minutes of the game where we haven’t been great.” –E.J. Singler
The key for the night was good ball movement, leading to a balanced team performance. 3 Duck players scored in the double digits including E.J. Singler who led the team with 18 points, and Arsalan Kazemi who had his 5oth career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Carlos Emory also had 11 points.
In addition to several high scoring players, Oregon’s ball flow also led to a high percentage from the field at 57.8%, a huge improvement from the 43.6% against Washington State. Coach Altman contributes this to a lot of effort and to getting the ball inside the key.
“We finished some tough plays. A lot of it is because we got 44 points in the paint.”
Turnovers were a dark spot for the Ducks, as they had 23. With a commanding 14-point lead with 4:23 left in the game, poor ball care let Washington work their way back into the game.
“It wasn’t about one person turning the ball over, it was turning the ball over as a team. We just got to calm down.” –Arsalan Kazemi
Oregon (18-2, 6-0) faces a road game on Wednesday at Stanford (11-8, 2-4) then at Cal (11-7, 3-3) on Saturday.
AJ Untermeyer reports from Matthew Knight Arena.
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