By: Jonah Rosenberg
On Thursday night, the Oregon Ducks were defeated by the Washington State Cougars by a score of 74-71. Despite a Matthew Knight Arena record 28 Oregon fouls (52 total), the Ducks took the Cougars down to the wire, but when Eugene Omoruyi fouled out late in the 2nd half, the Ducks fell victim to the Cougar’s hot shooting from behind the arc.
It was an ugly first half from the very tip. Oregon was clearly outsized in the front court and it became painfully apparent on the Cougar’s first possession. Two offensive rebounds leading to a wide open three pointer for DJ Rodman was enough for Dana Altman to go to the bench in the game’s second minute. Subbing in true freshman and large body Franck Kepnang provided a temporary fix to the interior woes, but the new center’s inexperience guarding skilled big men in complex offenses forced Altman to pivot to a more experienced lineup featuring Chandler Lawson and even Lok Wur. A stretch starting at the 14 minute mark provided lots of defense and little scoring. After Oregon scored only 1 basket in over four minutes, Washington State went on to miss 8 consecutive shots. At the end of the first half, Oregon trailed 36-31 despite Eugene Omoruyi’s 13 points on 5-6 shooting. The Ducks had 10 turnovers and were out-scored massively on second chance points.
Just when the teams thought the game couldn’t get any uglier, less than two minutes into the second half trainers had to help both WSU’s DJ Rodman and Oregon’s Chris Duarte off the court in separate incidents. With Oregon’s leading scorer on the season limping of the court, it was clear that one of Oregon’s other players would need to step up. Energy came from everywhere. Energy came from Franck Kepnang who saw his most action of the year, energy came from Will Richardson in his first game of the year, but most of all energy came from Dana Altman who despite COVID-19 protocols, injuries, game cancelations, limited practices and all never misses an opportunity to coach his players. Altman held huddles on every dead ball, shouted feedback halfway across the arena, and stood up for his players when he thought the referees missed a call(which they did quite often). With so many extenuating circumstances it's almost alright that come down the stretch, Oregon found themselves trailing. With 2:40 to go in the game, Oregon was trailing by only one possession. Missed opportunities on defense and missed shots on offense in the final few minutes gave the cougars just enough to squeeze past Oregon 74-71.
Overall it was a historic night for the wrong reasons. The Oregon Ducks (9-4) will next be in action this Saturday as the Washington Huskies (3-13) roll into town.
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Post-Game Audio