Ducks fall in Civil War, 70-57

The Ducks came into the 345^th meeting of the Civil War looking to steal the momentum early from the sold out Gill Coliseum. The Beavers got off to a nice start though thanks to the inside rebounding creating second chances. With the first time out of the game finally coming, the Ducks found themselves down 9-3 thanks in large part to an 8-2 rebounding deficit.

Out of the timeout we saw the first action of Dylan Ennis who immediately snatched a rebound. Coming out of the timeout, Oregon started attacking the rim and in the process closed the gap to four at the under-12 timeout. Ennis looked a little rusty in the early going (hard to blame him) as he tallied a turnover and looked lost on defense.

Thanks to Oregon turnovers and poor defense the Beavers found themselves in the midst of a 7-0 run to push the lead to eight. A monster slam by Elgin Cook finally broke the drought and briefly silenced the crowd. At the ten-minute mark Oregon fans saw Dylan Ennis score his first points as a Duck on a beautiful floater. However the momentum from the quick run didn’t last long as the Beavers offense kept picking on Dylan Ennis to get open threes and a 25-14 lead.

At that point the Ducks entered yet another intense scoring drought. Over the span of 8 minutes the Beavers went on a 10-0 run, which was finally broken by Tyler Dorsey. The Ducks weren’t getting much love with the refs but certainly weren’t doing themselves any favors with poor defensive and rebounding efforts. With four minutes left in the half, Oregon was doubled up, with the score 32-16.

The Ducks failed to make a run to close out the second half and entered halftime down 34-19. Oregon went into half shooting 28% on field goals and 20% on threes. The Beavers held a 23-15 rebounding advantage at the half.

Oregon came out of halftime playing with slightly more energy while moving the ball around much better for the open look. However, the Beavers still weren’t missing much of anything and held onto a 14-point lead at the first time out.

With over 13 minutes to play the Ducks finally were back within ten points thanks to a 5-0 run by Chris Boucher. Unfortunately, back-to-back monster dunks by the Beavers forced Dana Altman to take a timeout to settle his team down.

The game settled some at that point as it led to both teams just trading buckets. Oregon couldn’t find much of a rhythm however, as whenever the defense made a stop the offense failed to answer and vice versa. At the under-eight minute timeout the Ducks were down 11 hoping to make a final run to steal the game.

After a few buckets by the Ducks, the awoken Payton II kept putting the pressure on by getting to the rim and keeping the 12 point lead with five to play. Oregon got as close as they had in a long time, going down just eight with three minutes to play.

The comeback effort was not to be as turnovers, missed shots, and poor defense sealed the fate of the Ducks. Oregon fell 70-57 to lose the 345th meeting of the Civil War. The Ducks were led in the game by the 14 points and seven rebounds off the bench from Chris Boucher. The 12 turnovers and 35.8% shooting from Oregon was an absolute killer in this one.

Takeaway of the night:

Is the weekend over yet? Oh what a not fun weekend this one was from start to finish. The basketball team had a chance to take some minds away from San Antonio but unfortunately came out completely flat and disinterested from the start. From an on-court standpoint we see the same problems showing up again and again; horrible road performances, turnovers, rebounding problems, and inconsistent play from so many. Thankfully the friendly confines of Matt Knight Arena wait this Wednesday as the very talented California Golden Bears come to town.