Jermaine Couisnard, N'Faly Dante carry Oregon to season-defining win over No. 9 Arizona
The Oregon men’s basketball program played its best game of the year on Saturday and captured a win that could help get its season back on track.
The Ducks topped No. 9 Arizona, 87-68, at Matthew Knight Arena in front of a crowd of 7,970.
It was Oregon’s first win over the season over a ranked opponent and pushes the Ducks’ record to 10-8 on the season and 4-3 in Pac-12 play.
Just two days after Dana Altman’s Ducks turned in a flat, listless performance in a blowout loss to Arizona State, Oregon looked like the top-25 team that it was billed as during the preseason.
“I hope it’s pride,” Altman said when asked what sparked the Ducks’ quick turnaround. “I’m disappointed in our maturity and the fact that we can’t do that every game. We’re disappointed, but I talked to them about who we are and who we wanna be. … It was a great effort. the guys really responded.
“They played with tremendous energy.”
Jermaine Couisnard led the Ducks with 27 points and went 6-of-9 from three-point range. N’faly Dante scored 22 points, went 9-of-11 from the field, grabbed 10 boards, and had three steals and two blocks.
Will Richardson added 14 points and Nate Bittle added 10.
The Ducks out-rebounded Arizona 42-32 and finished the afternoon with 13 offensive boards.
Oregon came flying out of the gates on Saturday and got the Matthew Knight Arena crowd involved early.
The Ducks matched the Wildcats shot-for-shot early, thanks in large part to a flurry of thunderous dunks from Dante.
The first of those dunks, which came less than a minute into the game, was arguably the play of the season for Oregon.
“Absolutely, he was really good,” Altman said of Dante when asked about Dante’s performance. “He and Jermaine. … Just got us that separation. Offensively, those guys separated us. But defensively, it was everybody.”
The Ducks took a 43-37 lead into halftime and were propelled by 14 first-half points from Couisnard and 13 points from Dante.
Arizona immediately clawed its way back into the game after the break, though, and knocked down a pair of three-pointers within the first minute of the second half to tie it at 43-43.
The Ducks answered back with a three from Nate Bittle to re-take the lead, and Richardson knocked down another three one possession later to make it a two-score game.
From there, the Ducks pushed their lead to double digits and never looked in danger of surrendering it.
Oregon continued to pour it on throughout the second half and put the finishing touch on the game when Richardson buried a dagger three to make it 84-66 with 2:08 to go.
Next time down the floor, Couisnard drilled another three that brought the crowd to its feet.
Oregon’s win is far and away its best of the season from a resume-boosting standpoint.
Those who follow the program closely, though, have seen the Ducks deliver impressive wins at times this season only to stumble next time out. Oregon has two winnable games on the schedule next week against California on Wednesday and Stanford on Saturday.
Can those within the program carry Saturday’s momentum into those matchups?
“There’s no guarantee,” Altman said. “Those guys are going to have to come and play with that edge that they came with Friday and Saturday. I said after the game in the locker room, the coaching staff’s not going to change our preparation. … We didn’t scream or yell at them. We didn’t practice for two hours yesterday. We took the same amount of time that we always do, did the same things that we always do.
“They made the adjustment. They played their tail off. Dante was really good, and Jermaine was really good, but the rest of the guys defensively really, really played well.”
