Ducks Bounce Bruins 75-68
Rick Morgan
Oregon's 75-68 win over the UCLA Bruins at Matthew Knight Arena on Saturday offered something more than two completely different basketball games, twenty minutes each. But let's start there.
E.J. Singler's career best 26 points led the Ducks to their fourth straight win and into a tie for first place in the Pac-12 conference.
There was no reason to think that would be the case for the first twenty minutes. The Ducks couldn't buy a bucket (21%) and UCLA shredded the Oregon defense building a 37-24 halftime lead.
Shooting better than 51% from the floor, the Bruins hit for ten more baskets and grabbed ten more rebounds than the Ducks and that 13-point deficit looked to be more than the Ducks were up for.
Maybe it was the season best 10,830 who showed up to watch; maybe it was having the Rose Bowl champion football team in attendance filling the end zone seats, maybe it was what was surely - uh... let's say inspiring - halftime message from Altman. Maybe all three... but the Bruins were done, they just didn't know it yet.
Oregon opened the second half with a 15-2 tear to tie the game at 39, keyed by back-to-back three's from Garrett Sim (16 pts). Fouled on the first, Sim made the free throw then hit the second three after Jeremy Jacobs rebounded a UCLA's miss at the other end.
Two minutes later Oregon pulled even on a Tony Woods dunk.
The Bruins took advantage of a three minute adrenaline hangover to push back out to an eight point lead but Davoe Joseph and then Sim each hit from distance to reel the Bruins back within reach.
Then Singler took over.
Driving to the rim and getting to the free throw line when the Bruins would foul, the junior forward hit for half of his 26 points down the stretch. Singer scored 20 of his 26 points in the second half including 12 of 13 from the free throw line.
"I got into a groove with free throws," Singler said. "I got up there knowing I was going to make them. I was going up to the rim and they were calling the foul, so I kept trying to go to the rim and kept getting to the line."
Jonathan Loyd's three from deep in the corner gave Oregon the lead for good at 55-52. Once the Bruins clawed back to within a point but Singler and his teammates were relentless down the stretch, something that has become something of a trademark for this group.
"We have a passion for the game and an eagerness to win," said Sim. "We have a lot of seniors that are sick of not closing out games and we want to change that. We have a group that's coming together and it allows us to close out games."
"They were the aggressor and did all the tough things in the first half," said Altman. "This game is played with passion and energy and in the beginning, we didn't have any . Our focus in the first half was really bad. We would go trap someone and someone else wouldn't rotate over and they (UCLA) got easy baskets."
So what was said at halftime while the Matthew Knight Arena crowd showered their football classmates with accolades? No one directly answered the question, content to let the second half of play speak for itself.
"We have to play with passion and energy and we just were not," said Altman. "In the second half the guys got more into it which got us going. Tony Woods on the inside is just changing our defense with his shot blocking and intimidating the middle. Devoe Joseph really turned it up in the second half."
Singler and Sim each made the same point.
"We had more effort and our press produced energy for us," said Singler. "Our defense stepped up in the second half and Tony helped by altering shots. And Garrett hit those back-to-back three's that gave us a big boost."
"We came out and came together as a team," said Sim. "The press changed the game for us. We finally started making plays for each other in the second half."
The direct result is that on the day that for the first time in 95 years the community could collectively recognize Oregon's Rose Bowl football champions, their classmates grabbed a share of first place in the Pac-12 basketball standings. Call it coincidence if you like... but it didn't feel that way as Singler and Jerry Jacobs exchanged flying chest bumps as the clock hit zeroes.
Oregon next will host Oregon State for a Sunday, January 29th Civil War match-up. Tip is set for 3:30 pm.
