Oregon Basketball: Five Score In Double Figures As Ducks Take Care Of California
Payton Pritchard and Anthony Mathis led the Oregon Basketball team to a win over the California Golden Bears. The team hit over 70 percent from three-point range.
The mark was a Matthew Knight Arena record as Oregon started hot and never looked back. Anthony Mathis found his shot going 5 for 6 from beyond the arc as the Ducks were 12 of 17 from distance. It was a good sign despite facing an outmatched opponent in California. The Golden Bears found a way to keep it within 20 points late in the game making a short run before the Ducks walked away with the win.
Oregon held the Golden Bears to 36 percent from the floor forcing 10 turnovers and making an efficient 17 points off Cal mistakes. Once again, Payton Pritchard led the way on offense with 20 points and 9 of the teams very efficient 18 assists. Will Richardson, who was a game-time decision coming off an ankle injury played well. He was in the starting lineup.
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Richardson finished the game with 13 points playing 29 minutes and had several nice drives to the basket showing no ill effects from an injured ankle. With Chris Duarte out for an extended period of time following a procedure on his broken finger, the Ducks will need the experience from guys like Richardson to get them through the next few weeks. Duarte is expected to miss time through the Pac-12 Tournament next week.
N’Fale Dante is also working his way back from a knee injury and played 11 minutes. His presence was felt on both sides of the ball. Dante had 6 points and 3 rebounds. He did pick up 3 personal fouls in limited minutes and clearly still has some work to do as he works back to full strength. I expect Dante will see a similar amount of minutes vs Stanford on Saturday night.
With the win, the Ducks can finish no worse than a 2 seed and will earn the first-round bye regardless of the outcome vs Stanford. The Cardinal are looking to finish the regular season strong after a loss at Oregon State last night. Both Oregon and UCLA are looking at either winning a share of the Pac-12 Title or winning it outright. That will be decided on Saturday night.
Oregon and Stanford meet at 8 pm Saturday at Mathew Knight Arena.