Short-handed Ducks Ride Second Half Explosion to Beat Utah State

Altman secures 300th win at Oregon with victory over the Aggies

It’s been a less than stellar season across the board for the Oregon Men’s basketball team, but regardless they find themselves in the NIT with post-season basketball to play. Earlier on a Thursday it was announced that starters Will Richardson and N’Faly Dante would both be missing the opening round with non-COVID illnesses. Now facing the No. 4 seed Utah State Aggies short-handed, Dana Altman and his staff needed some big performances from some long-standing starters if they wanted their season to continue.

First Half:

Rivaldo Soares and Franck Kepnang saw their first starts of the season as the Ducks began their NIT run in Logan, Utah.

The story of the first half was the Aggies’ bench hero Steven Ashworth rattling off 14 points, and connecting on all four of his shots from beyond the arc, to put the Aggies in front 37-33 as the teams headed into the locker room.

Season long starter Jacob Young picked up two fouls early, limiting his playtime for a portion of the first half, opening the door wider for Lök Wur to see his first extended period of game time since the Montana win in November.

Quincy Guerrier, despite coming off a seven-game stretch averaging 15.5 points a game, went scoreless from the field, placing the scoring load on De’Vion Harmon.

The transfer guard from Oklahoma recorded a personal best 16-points in one half to keep the hobbled Ducks alive on the road.

Second Half:

The paint became the Ducks’ playground in the second half. The hostile home crowd was subjected to an onslaught of layups and tip shots from Kepnang and Young en route to a 12-5 run that gave the Ducks their first lead since the first few minutes of the first half.

Justin Bean, the Aggies leading scorer, found himself surprisingly cold from the floor, shooting 1-7 to begin the game, a mark that he’d fail to improve on as the game continued.

With less than ten minutes to go, the Aggies had only scored four points from the field, with the rest of their eleven second-half points coming from free throws. A team predicated on their shooting ability had gone ice cold due to defensive adjustments from the Ducks.

A four-point deficit had reversed into a fifteen-point lead for the Ducks, and it just kept on growing. Guerrier’s four-point play positioned the Ducks to keep on rolling in Logan, never looking back after their early run in the second half.

Wur’s first points of the game were the nail in the coffin for the Aggies, as his transition dunk cemented the Ducks’ lead, and put the game out of reach.

Harmon’s brilliant first half kept the Ducks in the game, but it was the combined efforts from Young, Soares, Guerrier, and Eric Williams Jr. who pushed the team over the line, and into the second round of the NIT.

From one group of Aggies to another, the Ducks now have a date in College Station, where they will meet up with the Texas A&M Aggies this weekend. 

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