Ducks Pluck Red Hawks
Rick Morgan
Familiar faces - E.J. Singler, Garrett Sim and Jeremy Jacobs led the Ducks to an easy 86-61 win over Southeast Missouri State Sunday afternoon at Matthew Knight Arena. But it was a new face that made most of the news when it was announced that highly touted freshman Jabari Brown had left the team.
"He just came in yesterday and said he had decided to leave," said head coach Dana Altman. "I will say right up front, I don't want him to leave. I did try to talk him out of it. I wanted him to reconsider. I hope he does reconsider. The door is still open. He is a good young man."
"He hasn't gotten off to the start he wanted," Altman said. "It's his decision and I want what's best for him, first of all, but I do want him in the program."
Another of the new faces may be missing time as well, center Tony Woods apparently came down on another player's foot, severely rolling his ankle.
As for the game, with Singler's 21 points leading the way Oregon ran away from the RedHawks with a 32-1 run to close out the first and open the second halves. Sim added 14 and Jacobs pitched in 10
"I thought we played really good basketball today," said Altman. "The first thirty minutes our activity defensively was the best we've had all year. We played hard and moved the ball well. We played a lot better tonight than we did in our previous games."
Oregon plays Nebraska in Lincoln on Wednesday (6;00 pm) before returning to Matthew Knight Arena to host UTEP on Tuesday, November 29th at 7:00 pm.