Oregon Routs Houston Baptist 91-50

The Ducks used a balanced scoring attack Saturday afternoon against the Houston Baptist Huskies with four players in double figures. The Ducks were lead by Senior Tony Woods wth 14 and EJ Singler’s 13, all in the first half. Oregon used a pair of runs early in each half to put the Huskies away 91-50. The Ducks dominated points in the paint 42-20 as well as gathering 20 points off HBU turnovers. The Oregon bench saw plenty of action as well, totaling 46 of the Ducks total 91 points.

Oregon started the game on a torrid pace connecting on 7 of their first 9 shots 3 of those assisted by Arsalan Kazemi. EJ Singler responded to his shooting issues against UTEP not missing in the first half going 5 for 5 including a trio of three pointers to pace the Ducks with 13. Singler was looking for his shot early in the game commenting that "I wanted to come back and redeem myself and get going." Oregon dominated the first 10 minutes of the game, jumping out to a 28-7 lead and never looking back. From that point on the Huskies never got within 18 points as Oregon maintained a tough defensive front and shut down Houston Baptist. Houston Baptist’s only real scoring threat in the first half was the Huskies leading scorer Art Bernardi. Bernardi had 14 of HBU’s 30 points in the first half and complimented that with a pair of rebounds. Also in double figures for Oregon was Damyean Dotson who had all ten of his points in the first session. Oregon capped the action in the first half with a run out where Johnathan Loyd found a streaking Carlos Emory for a fast break dunk and three point play. The Ducks were scorching the net from behind the three point line in the first half as they went 5-7. "We took good threes. We took some open threes the other night, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good threes…there’s an art to getting good threes." Altman said after the game.

In the second half, the Ducks defense cranked up the pressure, not allowing a field goal until the 11:20 point when Anthony Hill connected from three. The Ducks continued to pressure the ball, limiting the Huskies to only 20% shooting from the field and only 20 points in the second period. " I thought our movement was pretty good…Tony [Woods] and Wave [Austin]inside adjusted a lot of shots…our defense is getting better." It was a half for the Ducks when Dana Altman "got everybody on the floor." The Ducks were able to stifle Bernardi who saw limited action in the second. Taking over the bulk of the scoring for Houston Baptist was Tyler Russell who scored 8 of his 12 after intermission. The Duck starters saw limited action in the second half as the reserves shouldered much of the load for the balance of the game. Every player who dressed for the game saw the floor and the only player who didn’t score for the Ducks was Nicholas Lucenti who did assist on a corner three from Austin Kuemper to close the scoring in the game.

Addressing the Ducks shooting issues so far this season, coach Altman said that the team is built of "good shooters [but] we don’t have really good shooters." Early on the Ducks shot the ball well but they seemed to slack off in the second half, shooting only 40% which drug their overall percentage down to 48%. It’s tough to maintain the focus when routing a lesser opponent and Dana Altman doesn’t feel as though the Ducks did maintain the intensity throughout the game. The Ducks have only one non conference game remaining against Nevada on New Years Eve before they go on the road to face rival Oregon State in their first game of Pac-12 play. Coach Altman looks forward to the short break Oregon will enjoy before reconvening with coaches on the 26^th. The team will be back to practice on the 27^th to prepare for the Wolf Pack.