Veterans Lead Oregon Past Prairie View
Don Smalley

Prairie View A & M gave Oregon all it could handle, but the Ducks eventually came away with a 74-66 win in the second night of the Global Sports Hoops Showcase at Matthew Knight Arena.

Garrett Sim led the Ducks with a season high 20 points and Devoe Joseph added 19 as Oregon improved to 8-3 on the season. EJ Singler added 13 while collecting six rebounds. The Panthers fell to 4-8.

Oregon was able to shoot the ball a bit better than it did last night. In the opener of the showcase event against North Carolina Central, the Ducks shot just 33 percent. But against the Panthers, Oregon had an easier time finding the hole, shooting 41 percent on 21-of-51 from the field.

The Ducks held the lead for all but one minute late in the first half but the Panthers would not let the home team pull away.

Joseph's two free throws with 11:57 left in the second half gave Oregon its first double digit lead at 51-41. Sim's three pointer at 10:31 gave the Ducks their largest lead at 57-44,

The lead would stay at 10 for the next six minutes until the Panthers made a run to make things interesting.

Louis Munks hit a pair of long distance shots to pull Prairie View within four with 4:46 remaining, but Oregon answered with free throws and stingy defense. The Panthers did not score again until only 39 seconds remained and by then the game was well in hand for the Ducks.

Demondre Chapman led the Panthers with 12 points and Jourdan Demuynck added 10. Prairie View A & M shot 40 percent from the field (26-of-65). It hit 6-of-19 from three-point land.

Oregon, which has struggled from behind the arc in recent games, shot a cool 10-of-21 for 48 percent.

Head coach Dana Altman started with the positives.

"We had three guys play well offensively," he said. "E.J. (Singler), Garrett (Sim) and Devoe (Joseph). They allowed us to score points."

Then Altman addressed his concerns.

"The new guys are struggling a little bit. They are having a tough time trying to find the rhythm . We just never got a flow offensively.

Center Tony Woods in particular struggled, going 1-3 from the floor and 1-4 from the line in 15 minutes of playing time before fouling out. But Woods had plenty of company in misery. Olu Ashuolu and Carlos Emory and Jeremy Jacob were equally ineffective offensively and the foursome turned the ball over 12 times.  

"They doubled Tony quite a bit," said Altman. "We just never got a flow going. We found a way to win but .. we didn't make the steps to improve as I hoped we would."

The Ducks will conclude a four-game home stand and their non-conference slate with a bout against Stephen F. Austin on Thursday beginning at 7 pm.