Oregon Blows out Arizona State 80-61 in Second Half Comeback
The Oregon Ducks (14-5, 6-2 Pac-12) turned a horrible first half into an 80-61 blowout win over the Arizona State Sun Devils (11-8, 5-3 Pac-12) Thursday night in Eugene.
The Ducks remain perfect at home and saw third-year center Nate Bittle return to the court, starting in his first game missing 15 games with a wrist injury.
It was a tale of two halves for an Oregon team bouncing back from consecutive losses on the road to Colorado and Utah.
“It definitely was a statement win for us,” point guard Keeshawn Barthelemy said after the game. “We needed this one at home, especially coming off of two L’s on the road.”
Keeshawn Barthelemy scored 12 points, shooting 5/6 from the field against ASU.
Scott Boldt/Ducks Digest
The Ducks shot 34.5% from the field in the first half but turned up the heat and shot 69.2% in the second half. Oregon also locked up defensively in the second half, holding Arizona State scoreless for 5:44 while the Ducks rattled off 15 straight points.
“We took some questionable shots there,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “They got us out of rhythm. And defensively we had eight tips in the whole first half. We had 27 in the second half. It gives you an idea of the intensity.”
The Sun Devils not only got the Ducks out of rhythm offensively, but they also forced Oregon to turn the ball over six times in the first half while keeping the Ducks scoreless for 7:03.
Luckily, while Arizona State went on an 11-0 run, Oregon was only down by 10 points with eight minutes left in the first half.
“We made some communication mistakes again on switches that really gave up some easy baskets,” Altman reflected. “We can get better if we can eliminate some of those communication mistakes.”
N’Faly Dante broke the scoreless streak for the Ducks, sealing off his defender in the post which signaled to Jadrian Tracey to pass it to the seven-footer as he emphatically dunked the ball to jump-start Oregon’s offense.
The Ducks strung together a couple of good offensive possessions after Dante’s dunk, scoring three straight buckets to cut the lead down to 1 with 3:48 left in the first half.
Oregon went into halftime down 33-28 but the momentum was already shifting into their favor.
“I looked at everybody in the locker room,” Dante said. “I could tell that everyone wanted to win this game, so we all knew what we needed to do. Everybody just needed to play defense.”
Coming out of halftime Dante and Jermaine Couisnard scored on back-to-back possessions, cutting Arizona State’s lead back down to 1. Couisnard and Bittle got fouled in the ensuing possessions and made all four of their free throws to tie the game at 36.
Oregon tied the game up again five minutes into the second half off of Jackson Shelstad and Brennan Rigsby scoring easy layups off of Arizona State turnovers.
Mahamadou Diawara sunk two free throws to give Oregon its first lead since the Ducks were up 10-9 five minutes into the game.
The Ducks really started rolling when Barthelemy got a block and pushed the ball up the court and was rewarded for his defensive efforts by getting a pass from Kwame Evans Jr. hitting a three-pointer putting Oregon up by five.
Oregon went on to go on a 15-0 run while keeping the Sun Devils scoreless for 5:44, almost a complete switch of runs from the first half.
The biggest lead of the night was 22 for Oregon as Dante, Couisnard and Barthelemy accounted for 23 points during Oregon’s 27-5 run.
Dante had 16 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks, Couisnard had 19 points (game-high), 3 assists and shot 3/6 from three and Barthelemy had 12 points, 3 rebounds and was perfect from the field shooting 5/5 until a late game miss from beyond the arc.
Bittle got back in the game’s final minutes as he sat out most of the second half. He scored seven points in 12 minutes in his return.
Nate Bittle returned to action after being out 15 games with a wrist injury.
Darby Winter/Ducks Digest
“We’re glad to have him back,” Barthelemy said. “In stretches, he was great out there for us.”
The Ducks look to extend their 11-game home winning streak as they host No. 9 Arizona on Saturday.
“Arizona is going to be really tough,” Barthelemy said. “We can’t afford to not put one half together, we have to put both halves together. It’s going to be a good challenge for us, they’re one of the premiere teams in the conference and so are we.”
