Oregon Ducks Led By Brooks and Boucher Sweep Arizona Schools For First Time Since 2012
The Oregon Ducks Men’s Basketball team is peaking entering the final month of the season. The team has swept the Arizona schools on the road for the first time since 2012.
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It has taken the Oregon Ducks Men’s Basketball a long time to get here. The top of the Pac-12 Standings have one team standing alone and following a better than average but tough to take Football season at 9-4, Oregon fans have a Basketball team to cheer for that seems to have a different leader on the court from one night to the next. Dillon Brooks has cemented himself as the leader of this team from the start of the year, but role players like Chris Boucher, Casey Benson, Jordan Bell, and Tyler Dorsey have helped relieve or completely take away the pressure on the shoulders of Brooks.
Case and point, Sunday night against Arizona. While Brooks had 18 points, Boucher added a career high 26 points and 10 rebounds to go with 7 blocked shots in a career night for the Oregon Senior. Dana Altman has watched his team get halfway through the Pac-12 slate with an undefeated home slate and a road record that saw the Nation’s longest winning streak fall and his team beat talented and pesky teams that would not go away like Utah and Arizona to be the lone team at the top of the Pac-12 Standings. Not only is his team on a roll but the Ducks are also at the top of key metrics with a month to go before March Madness.
Oregon has learned from past mistakes and started out hot starting the game on a 13-0 run, but Arizona State would storm back to take the lead. The Ducks again hit their shots and led by a point at the half. ASU decided that fouling was their best course of action to start the 2nd half, but Oregon made them pay hitting nine straight foul shots extending their lead. A series of three pointers put Arizona within 7 points, but then the Oregon Ducks had a run of their own and put the game away. It was the first road sweep of the Arizona schools in four years.
The Oregon Ducks have a high RPI(4th) and are the only team in the country that have won nine games against teams in the Top 50 RPI. As the season has gone on their Strength of Schedule has also been ranked high. Oregon is streaking winning 7 of their last 8 games and return home this weekend to take on Colorado and Utah. The weekend sweep of the Arizona schools was a big key to the season.
Next: Cazorla Leads Oregon Ducks To Win Over Arizona
Oregon and Colorado meet on Thursday night at 6pm Pacific Time from Matthew Knight Arena.