Oregon defeats Washington State 92-75

The Oregon Ducks are now 10-3 and among four teams who started Pac-12 play with a victory, as the Ducks demolished the Washington State Cougars 92-75 last night in Pullman, Washington. Oregon led 54-34 at the half and were led by Olu Ashaolu’s 23 points and ten boards off the bench, and the Ducks bench has definitely been a strong suit this season with Ashaolu providing great production when checking in. The senior forward is averaging 7.1 points per game and 4.4 rebounds per game on the season in 20.6 minutes played per night; the former Louisiana Tech star went 9-11 in 24 minutes last night.

Guard Devoe Joseph had over 15 points (17), and he had seven assists and five turnovers. Both Joseph and Ashaolu were efficient, and the team scored 1.30 points per possession compared to the 1.08 mark from the Cougars. The Ducks definitely out-rebounded their overmatched opponent and were far more efficient in a game in which they had just one more possession than the home club. Oregon may have turned the ball over more, but they had a terrific effective field goal percentage of 78.6%. They shot 56% from 3-point range and Joseph and Brett Kingma led the way with two 3-4 performances.

Although Garrett Sim has the highest PER on the team (22.6), Devoe Joseph (22.0)- stats not including last night”s game- has been their best player since becoming eligible. He may not be as efficient as Sim, but he plays better defense. This was a small-ball game, and the Ducks can be happy knowing they are 1-0 in the Pac-12 right now. The Ducks, despite the Cougars best efforts to try and showcase this, are not a great- or even a good- team; they are merely average. However, the Pac-12 is extremely weak this year, and average is definitely enough to do some damage in this conference. The Ducks will be looking to do some damage in their next three games against Washington, Stanford, and California.

DaVonte Lacy was a bright spot for Wazzu, as he led the team with 19 points and hit 5 of 6 from downtown and was by far the team’s best player on the night. Brock Motum was, as expected, a factor and was the only other starter who played well (12 points and 5 rebounds). Motum currently has a 20.4 PER; the highest mark among Wazzu players with at least 300 minutes played.

This game was all about efficiency, and the Ducks were hitting pretty much every shot they took and made 76% of their 2-pointers (69% from the floor overall). The Cougars were both helpless and hopeless in a game they were seemingly destined to lose and could not overcome the huge half-time deficit. They also collected just 22 boards, and Motum was the only player on the team to collect at least five rebounds; he and guard Marcus Capers were the only two on the team to haul in three.

Again, this win was just domination for the Ducks, and a crowd of 9,889 left Pullman a little worse for wear after watching their team get crushed by a barrage of shots falling through. Ashaolu, of the 12.7 PER, was the man who went off and had .493 Eff/Pos with an 81.8 FG%. The Ducks will go into a rivalry game against Washington with much-needed confidence and have definitely starting things off right in the Pac-12.

Stats from:

bbstate.com

sports-reference.com/cbb

espn.com

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