On a neutral court against Cincinnati, at California
and now at Stanford, the Ducks went in with high
expectations and were smoked. The only road win for
Oregon so far this season was the 105-90 thriller at
Pepperdine.
Tonight, the No. 10 Oregon Ducks showed that without a
total effort from every player any team can jump up
and bite them. This time is was the Stanford
Cardinal. Stanford beat the Ducks in Maples Pavilion
today 81-57 in front of 7,034.
For the first seven minutes of the game Oregon was
right in it. With 13:12 to go in the half Luke
Jackson nailed a three pointer bringing the Ducks to
within five points at 14-9.
Josh Childress made his second three pointer of the
game for Stanford with 12:22 to go and Oregon would
never be close to the lead again. Childress' three
pointer was his second in two minutes and both of them
came off the same play. A screen was set in the lane,
Childress would swing around it and wind up in the
coffin corner right side to have a wide open three
pointer. Oregon's defense didn't switch or do
anything to stick with him. His two shots really
sparked Stanford.
By halftime the Ducks were struggling to box out and
giving up a lot of easy hoops. Oregon made one run
near the end of the first half that brought them to
within four points after a Matt Short dunk, but then
Stanford strung together eight straight points putting
them up 12 at halftime, 41-29.
After eight straight points to end the first half,
Stanford scored 11 straight to start the second half
putting the Ducks away for good. After that any
energy that Oregon had was gone. Luke Ridnour
continued to play hard, trying to take the game into
his hands and bring the team back, but Stanford shot
the ball much too well today.
The Cardinal was 11-19 from three point land today,
and it seemed like whenever Oregon would make a hoop
or two that Stanford would come down and hit a three.
Junior guard Matt Lottich was 5-7 from long range,
making all of his points on long bombs.
Even when Stanford was drilling three pointers, Oregon
left them open for these shots that were killing the
Ducks. Coach Ernie Kent was not pleased with the
team's effort on defense or anywhere else on the floor
today or in practice.
"We've had a team that has turned us off a little bit
and stopped listening a bit," Kent told OSN. "Maybe
(they've) started listening a little bit more to
what's (said) in the community about how great they
are. It's a team that has not had that intensity
level that we've needed to have on a day to day
basis."
While Stanford had it going from long range, the Ducks
struggled going only 5-18 on three pointers. When a
team can't score from the outside normally they will
take it inside either on the drive or by feeding the
post. Neither worked for the Ducks today as few
players tried to penetrate and post play was nearly
non-existent.
"We didn't get a lot of production in the low post
with the exception of Matt (Short)," Kent said. "When
you're not scoring in the low post, teams will really
lock up our guards."
Stanford spread their scoring around well today
putting four players into double figures. Julius
Barnes had 17 points, Matt Lottich had 15, Josh
Childress put up 14 points and sophomore Nick Robinson
had 13 points and 11 rebounds.
The Ducks were stymied by Stanford's defense today
with only Luke Ridnour scoring more than eight points.
Ridnour had 19 points and with a basket with 8:51 to
go in the first half put himself in the 1,000 point
club.
Matt Short received his first start tonight for the
Ducks and scored eight points before fouling out.
Short looked solid in the paint on both offense and
defense. With experience he will only get better.
Andre Joseph also started today and also scored eight
points but grabbed seven rebounds. Brandon Lincoln
received plenty of playing time tonight off of the
bench and showed some promise. Ian Crosswhite saw
limited action and only attempted one shot.
One of Oregon's trademarks all season has been moving
the ball and creating a lot of assists. Today it was
a different story. The Ducks made 19 baskets and only
had seven assists.
The Ducks who are now 1-3 in Pac10 play, will go to
Portland for the second time this season, this time
facing the Portland State Vikings. PSU is 3-11 with
wins over Sacramento State, Linfield (McMinnville, OR)
and Cal-State Northridge. Jeb Ivey is leading the
Vikings in scoring with 14.8 points per game. The
senior guard from San Jose, California was All-Big Sky
Conference Honorable Mention last season. Oregon and
Portland State will tip off on Wednseday at 6:00pm and
will be broadcast on OSN