Eugene, OR – Boise State’s Lexus Williams swished a last second bomb from just over half-court to give the Broncos a 73-70 win over Oregon and end the Ducks’ 46-game home winning streak before 7,688 stunned fans.
In a key sequence late in the game with the score tied, the Ducks’ Roman Sorkin missed a three-pointer with 15 seconds remaining, then Keith Smith had two chances to tip the ball in. Both missed, then Sorkin was called for an offensive foul. Christian Sengfelder made both free throws for the Broncos. Payton Pritchard then drove the length of the court to tie the game at 70 with 3.8 seconds remaining to set the stage for Williams’ heroics.
Pritchard led Oregon in scoring with 28 points, making all seven of his free throws and hitting 3-of-7 from deep. His backcourt mate Elijah Brown added 17 but shot an inefficient 6-of-15 from the floor including 2-of-7 on 3s. Oregon received little help on offense from their frontcourt with 6-9 Paul White (9 points) leading that group in scoring. The Ducks were without their key freshman Troy Brown who missed the game with a concussion. They could have definitely used Brown in this contest.
6-7 Chandler Hutchison is clearly the most skilled Bronco. The long, athletic wing scored 20 points and added 10 rebounds. Hutchison repeatedly drive past Duck defenders and got into the lane. He wound up at free throw line ten times and passed for three assists. Hutchison has an NBA frame, size and athleticism and there were 10 NBA scouts there to view him. Oregon had no defensive answer for 6-11 Zach Haney, Haney scored 17 points, 15 in the first half and helped get several frontcourt Ducks in foul trouble. White and 6-7 MiKyle McIntosh eventually fouled out and played only a combined 38 minutes due to their foul trouble.
Oregon didn’t exhibit much rim protection or post defense in this game and their clear weakness was in their frontcourt. They also continued to be out of position on defense and were called for eight more fouls than Boise State which resulted in 15 more free throw attempts for the Broncos.
Oregon shot a poor 6-of-23 from deep and 30 of their 61 field goal attempts came from their two backcourt starters. Boise was helped in the second half by excellent three-point shooting from 6-6 Justinian Jessup who made five second-half 3s. Jessup shot 5-of-8 from deep. The lefty came into the game shooting 50 percent on 3s (24-of-48). Prior to Williams’ last second heave the rest of their team was 1-of-10 from deep. In the first half Boise scored all of their points from the paint and the free throw line.
It was a big win for Boise State (7-1) while Oregon’s loss puts them at 5-3 with Colorado State up next Friday at home. Colorado State (4-4) topped Colorado 72-63 on Saturday so that should be another competitive game for Oregon.
This article was written by Carl Berman, Managing Partner of NetScouts Basketball. You can follow us on Facebook, or on twitter.
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