A barrage of three point baskets by senior guard Jay-R Strowbridge led the Oregon Ducks to an 82-63 shellacking of Oregon State Saturday afternoon at Matthew Knight Arena.
Strowbridge hit for a career high 26 points, sinking 10 of his 16 shots including six of nine from deep.
"Jay-R was on fire today, and everyone knew it,'' said forward E.J. Singler, "That's what good teams do - they recognize it, and they get the ball to the person with the hot hand, and he definitely had it today.''
Singler and Joevan Catron each added 13 for the Ducks and Oregon completed a sweep of the 2011 Civil War series after dropping both games to the Beavers last season.
As much as the spotlight fell on Strowbridge, it was Catron and Malcolm Armstead who staggered the Beavers first.
Neither team came out of the locker room shooting well and for more than three minutes the game was more pinball than basketball.
Once Oregon State's Jared Cunningham broke the ice off the rims, Catron quickly tied the game with an emphatic bucket off the blocks serving notice the Beaver defense would have to account for his presence inside.
Packed into the paint, Armstead made the Beaver defense pay immediately, hitting a deuce, a trey, then assisting on pair of Teondre Williams long distance jumpers and the Ducks never looked back.
Strowbridge drilled his first attempt from the top of the key, assist Armstead.
Following a Singler jumper, Armstead fed Strowbridge for a lay-up then picked the Beaver's Roberto Nelson clean and found Strowbridge for a breakaway and by the time the dust settled Oregon held a 27-10 lead.
"It started with Malcolm,'' said Oregon head coach Dana Altman. "I mean, he just made play after play. He got into the middle of the zone and got guys open.''
If it started with Malcolm, it ended with Strowbridge. After taking a 42-29 lead into the break, Oregon saw the Beavers rally back to within eight points at 48-40.
Oregon State would get no closer. Strowbridge got the hit parade back on track for the Ducks with back to back to back three balls, Armstead assisting on each.
Singler and Tyron Nared joined in the long distance fun and the rout was on.
"I'm really happy for the guys," Altman said. "In particular, Jay-R." who celebrated his 23rd birthday with the career outing. "That was a really special performance by him."
"I was open,'' said Strowbridge.
That he was.
Amstead - who led the team with 13 assists - and the Ducks methodically and relentlessly overloaded the Oregon State zone, kicking ball to the open man in what began to look like a shooting gallery as the second half progressed.
As a team Oregon was credited with 19 assists on their 25 baskets.
"That's making shots for your teammates," Altman said. "That's moving the ball really well."
While his two guards rightfully grabbed most of the attention Altman was also pleased with the Oregon defense that forced 19 turnovers, converting them into 24 points.
That defense also held the Beavers to 20-54 from the floor (37%) and came away with eight steals on the night.
Offensively, the Ducks hit 25 of their 54 attempts (46.3%) and was an even 50% from behind the arc (13-26). The Beavers did own a 35-28 rebounding advantage, but that was of little consequence in the face of the Oregon onslaught.
The win improved Oregon's record to 14-12 overall and to 7-7 in conference play with the Bay Area schools in town next week to close out the home schedule before the Ducks the finish season in Arizona.
"We've got four tough games left,'' Altman said. "We've got a lot of work to do, but we've made tremendous progress since December."
