Eugene, OR – The Pac-12 conference is having a serious down year. Most teams are mediocre and not consistent. That was very evident tonight as Stanford, coming off their best performance of the year in a 23-point road win at Oregon State, started the game against Oregon by missing 21 of their first 22 shots. The Ducks led from start to finish topping the Cardinal 69-46 before 9.014 fans in Eugene. Payton Pritchard led Oregon with 20 points while freshman Louis King added 16.
Stanford didn’t score their second field goal until Oscar Da Silva hung back in transition and dunked with 6:29 left in the half, at which point Oregon led 18-4. After that, Stanford actually started hitting some shots, ending the half with a 30-20 deficit. The closest Stanford was able to get was within seven points early in the second half after a KZ Okpala three-pointer. At that point Oregon gradually increased their lead helped by two three-pointers from Victor Bailey Jr. and four baskets from King. Oregon’s lead extended to 26 points in the final minutes. Stanford ended the contest shooting 27.3 percent (15-of-55) from the field including 16.7 percent (3-of-18) from long distance.
Pritchard continued his offensive resurgence for Oregon with his second straight strong performance. He was more aggressive on offense particularly in taking the ball to the basket quickly. Pritchard shot a solid 8-of-13 for the game and connected on two of his four three-point attempts.
Kenny Wooten seemed to have a spring to his step from the start tonight. He was all over defending the basket. Wooten had seven blocks on the night, several spectacular. He added six points and six rebounds in 26 minutes of action. King was an efficient 6-of-12 from the floor with his mid-range game looking good. He also added a team-high seven rebounds. Bailey Jr. has been in a horrendous shooting slump lately but seemed to gain confidence with his back-to-back three-pointers. He finished with 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting and connected on three from downtown, Bailey Jr. had six straight games of single-figure scoring, averaging four points per game over that span.
Oregon’s offense was fairly efficient as they shot 44 percent from the floor and 41 percent (7-of-17) on 3s. They had 11 assists against nine turnovers while the Cardinal committed 14 turnovers and had only three assists. Stanford certainly missed starting point guard Daejon Davis who was out of action due to a head injury suffered in the second half of the Oregon State game. No Stanford player was effective tonight and that included potential first-round pick Okpala. The 6-9 forward scored ten points on a poor 3-of-14 from the field.
Oregon is now 6-5 in the conference but plays five of their seven remaining games on the road. They play at Oregon State on Saturday in an important game as they try to get into the top four teams in the conference and get a first day bye in the conference tournament. Stanford, 5-6 in conference, heads home to face USC and UCLA later this week.
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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