Oregon notches pivotal win over Stanford in regular-season finale
The Oregon men’s basketball program knew what was at stake on Saturday.
In its final game of the regular season, the Ducks responded accordingly with a gritty performance and made their potential path to the NCAA tournament a bit easier in the process.
Oregon topped Stanford 73-68 at Matthew Knight Arena on Saturday to improve to 18-13 on the year and 12-8 in Pac-12 play. With the win, the Ducks officially surged past Arizona State and moved into fourth place in the conference standings, thus earning a bye in the first round of next week’s conference tournament.
For a team whose only realistic hope of reaching the NCAA tournament is by running the table at the conference tourney, Saturday’s win was pivotal for Dana Altman’s Ducks.
N’Faly Dante finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds, and five blocks, and Keeshawn Barthelemy had 14 points.
In his final home game as an Oregon Duck, senior guard Will Richardson scored 10 points and had six assists in 37 minutes.
How it happened
Oregon struggled mightily on both ends of the floor early.
The Ducks quickly found themselves in an 8-0 hole and the starting lineup of Will Richardson, Jermaine Couisnard, Rivaldo Soares, Nate Bittle, and N’Faly Dante proved to be ineffective early on.
Dana Altman opted to insert Quincy Guerrier, Keeshawn Barthelemy, and Kel’el Ware into the game at the 13:08 mark, and the lineup shift proved to swing the momentum of the game. Barthelemy and Guerrier provided the offensive spark Oregon needed and each hit a handful of big shots.
By the 7:28 mark in the half, Oregon had negated Stanford’s strong start and took a 22-21 lead on Barthelemy’s three-pointer.
The two teams traded buckets over the next six minutes before a late-half surge from Ware provided the Ducks with a big boost just before halftime.
Ware converted a tough layup through traffic with 58 seconds to go to give Oregon a 36-34 lead. Then, on the next time down the floor, he buried a wide-open corner three to extend the lead to five and send the Ducks into the break with some momentum.
After halftime, Oregon didn’t slow down.
Altman opted to start Guerrier in place of Bittle in the second half, and his faith was immediately rewarded when Guerrier knocked down a three on the Ducks’ first possession of the half.
From there, Oregon never led by fewer than three points.
Richardson and Couisnard each knocked down three-pointers early in the half to help withstand a couple of potential Stanford rallies.
With 12:51 left in regulation, Couisnard lobbed a pass to Dante, who slammed it home for a massive alley-oop that pushed Oregon’s lead to 52-43 and brought the home crowd to its feet.
Stanford stayed in contention though, thanks to a sluggish stretch from the Ducks late in the game. The Cardinal trimmed Oregon’s lead to 57-54 with 5:48 to go after a three from Brandon Angel.
But the Ducks answered right back when Richardson carved his way through the paint and dumped a pass to Bittle for an easy layup. After Stanford responded with a basket of its own, Richardson found Bittle again next time down the floor to push Oregon’s lead to 61-56.
Stanford staged another rally in the final minutes and, trailing 70-66, had an opportunity to make it a one-score game with 1:31 to go. But Dante blocked Angel’s layup on a drive to the basket. On Stanford’s next possession, Dante blocked Angel again to preserve Oregon’s two-score lead.
Couisnard then buried a pair of free throws for the Ducks to push the lead to 72-66.
On the Cardinals’ ensuing possession, Richardson fouled Harrison Ingrahm on a three-point attempt and gifted Stanford an opportunity to climb back into the game. But Ingrahm missed his final free throw, and the Ducks held on for the win.
