Jeremey Jacob (19 pts.) and Malcolm Armstead (18 pts.) paced the Oregon Ducks to a 67-57 win over USC Saturday afternoon at McArthur Court, completing their sweep of the home stand against the Los Angeles schools.
Since Jacob's insertion into the starting line-up, the junior college team mates have provided an extra measure of offense that Oregon had been missing during the five-game losing streak that was snapped with Thursday's 71-66 win over UCLA.
"Brings me back to (our) junior college days," said Jacob of his pairing with Armstead in the starting line-up. "He used to look for me almost every time down the floor. But now there are so many great players on the team he has to look for everyone. But he finds me when he can."
"We felt the rhythm starting in practice," Jacobs continued and went on to elaborate that Kent has been impressing upon his team the history of McArthur Court and the players who had come before. "He's just really trying to get it back to what it was then."
As they had against the Bruins, Oregon employed a zone defense to limit the inside scoring of the USC front line. With the 6'8" Jacob teamed with 6'10" center Mike Dunigan in the revamped defensive scheme, Oregon has been able to jump start their transition game and limit the number of offensive rebounds allowed to the opponent.
As a consequence, Armstead has found a new comfort level directing the offense out of the defensive end. His four assists against the Trojans led the team and his 7-10 shooting from the field included a timely pair of three point baskets.
Oregon opened up an eight point lead in the first six minutes of the contest, but the Trojans rallied back to take their only lead 17-15 following a three point basket by Dwight Lewis.
Oregon's E.J. Singler responded in kind, then Armstead struck for back-to-back buckets to push the Ducks back in front 22-17.
USC's Mike Garrity (12 pts.) and Lewis - who lead the Trojans with 16 - answered with a pair of lay-ups and a three pointer, but the Ducks found Jacob for points after each USC bucket. A lay-up, an old school three point play, then another lay up off an Armstead assist pushed Oregon's lead to seven points before Garrity converted a turnover and a steal into two uncontested lay-ups, sending the Ducks to the break leading 31-28.
The Ducks appeared to take control of the contest following the break, leading by nine after Singler's jumper gave Oregon a 47-38 lead with 8:21 left in the game. But the Trojans took advantage of a couple of missed Oregon shots and a pair of turnovers to score nine straight points, knotting the game at 47 with just less than six minutes remaining.
After Tajuan Porter broke the tie with a deuce and a missed three point attempt by USC was rebounded by Oregon's Teondre Williams, referee Bobby McRoy sprinted over to the USC bench and emphatically called a technical foul on the graduate assistant student manager.
Porter hit both free throws and with Oregon's awarded possession, Armstead drove the lane, was fouled and did likewise. A missed USC shot and a turnover sent Porter and Jacob to the line, each converting both of their attempts and the Ducks were back in front by 10.
Down the stretch, Armstead hit a pair from the floor and Jacob hit three of four from the line to close out the Trojans, giving the Ducks the weekend sweep and improving their record to 4-5 in conference (tied for 5th place) and 12-9 overall.
"I thought this team just did a tremendous job of managing and handling itself," said head coach Ernie Kent. "When you think of where you were five games ago, where maybe you were the talk of the Pac-10 when you came off the road at Washington - we played very well up there. We came back and we had a week break before we played again and we did not handle ourselves very well.'
Oregon faces a similar situation with a week off before facing Oregon State in Corvallis next Saturday (3:00 pm - televised by FSNW).
"This team has grown over the time. The adversity is really toughening them up - and I'm just talking about the adversity of life that they are going through with some life lessons and some of the noise they hear. They really have to circle the wagons a little bit and they have done a very, very good job of letting us coach them."
"When teams come together their strength is in their numbers. That's what we have been trying to convince them. Now all of a sudden we are shooting it rhythm and here we come."
The Ducks head to Arizona following next week's Civil War date in Corvallis, before returning to McArthur Court on Thursday, February 18th to face Stanford (7:00 pm tip) followed by California on Saturday, February 20th (3:00 pm).
