The Oregon men's basketball team pushed through their "Christmas Legs" to get past Arkansas-Pine Bluff 73-53 in front of 6,374 at Mac Court Monday night. The 20-point win was over Oregon's last non-conference opponent of the season.
Michael Dunigan had another career game with 26 points and five rebounds. But it was the return of sharp-shooter Tajuan Porter that showed that Oregon might be a force to be reckoned with when Pac-10 play opens Thursday afternoon.
Porter returned from an ankle injury to score 15 points in 25 minutes of play coming off the bench.
"Coach (Ernie Kent) said to leave it out on the floor," Dunigan said. "Know your job and do your job and my job is to run the floor after we get the rebound and that's what I've been doing."
Most of Dunigan's baskets were slam dunks after good feeds from point guard Malcolm Armstead. Dunigan was 10-for-14 from the floor and 6-of-9 from the free throw line. Armstead poured in 15 points of his own, but also had eight assists.
But all wasn't cheery for the Ducks as they play a less-than-stellar first half against a team that was 0-10 coming into the night. Oregon was just up three on the Golden Lions going into the halftime break at 27-24.
That half was quickly forgotten as the Ducks opened up the second 20 minutes of action with a 21-9 run to take control of the game.
"I thought we needed a half just get our legs underneath us and that's why I'm glad we have a game sitting here," Kent said. "I can't imagine being that stagnant heading out on the road. But what a second half it was for these guys."
Oregon shot 16-for-23 (70 percent) from the field in the second half and 10-for-13 from the charity stripe. The Ducks outscored UAPB 46-29 after halftime.
The Golden Lions had no answer for the Ducks' inside-outside threat of Dunigan and Porter. It was important to Porter to play significant minutes in a game before Pac-10 play starts Dec. 31 at Washington State.
"I kept going out on the court and reinjuring it (ankle), so I just wanted to sit back a couple of games and better myself," Porter said. "So now I'm feeling pretty good going into Pac-10 play."
Oregon is entering conference play with some momentum as the Ducks have won four in a row. They feel like the Pac-10 is wide open and everyone has a chance to win the conference, including themselves.
"A lot of teams don't know what we have here," Dunigan said of his conference foes. "They had to get more people and we had to get more people and I think our people are better than their people."
Proof of the conference being down might lay in Tuscon and Los Angeles. Arizona was defeated 99-69 by BYU at home Monday and UCLA is 5-7 with losses to Cal-State Fullerton and Portland. But according to Kent, that just means the conference will be competitive within itself.
"I think the conference is up for grabs because it will come down to consistency," he said. "Again, it will come down to protecting your home floor and steal as many road games as you can. There's no clear-cut dominating team. It's going to be one heck of a Pac-10 race again."
