Tenacious Ducks Give Altman His 100th Victory at Oregon
by Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
EUGENE, Ore. — The rebuilt Oregon men's basketball team faced its toughest test to date and passed, outhustling Toledo for a 78-68 victory in the Progressive Legends Classic before 5,790 in Matthew Knight Arena on Friday. The win was fifth-year coach Dana Altman's 100th career victory with the Ducks.
How It Happened: Senior guard Joseph Young said afterward the pregame shootaround "didn't go too well," but that didn't carry over as the Ducks led for most of the early going. Young made his first field goal after missing seven straight to open Monday's win over Detroit, and his three-point play off a steal and assist by Casey Benson put Oregon ahead 17-14. A jumper by Young made it 23-19, at which point Toledo mounted a 10-2 run to retake the lead. But Young closed the half with threes on back-to-back possessions and the Ducks went into the break up 36-34.
Late in the first half, Oregon switched to a zone defense with the occasional press, and that carried over into the second half. Toledo guard Julius Brown hurt the Ducks with 4-of-6 three-point shooting in the first half, but he was 0-of-3 as part of the Rockets' 4-of-15 effort from three after halftime. Oregon also frustrated Toledo big man Nathan Boothe, limiting him to two points and four rebounds in 16 foul-plagued minutes. The Ducks, meanwhile, displayed tremendous hustle in winning the battle of the boards 46-36, jumping on seemingly every 50-50 ball and blocking seven shots.
Oregon never trailed after halftime, methodically pulling away over the course of the 20 minutes. Elgin Cook drove the middle of the lane for a monster dunk that made it 56-46 after a blocked three-pointer by Jordan Bell at the other end. Later, Dwayne Benjamin dunked home alley-oops from Dillon Brooks on consecutive possessions to again make the lead 10 at 73-63. Oregon never led by more than 12, but the Ducks also never really seemed threatened by the Rockets over the latter stages of the game. The level to which Oregon outhustled Toledo was capped off by walk-on Theo Friedman going to the floor to secure one last loose ball in the game's closing seconds.
Who Stood Out: Young paced the Ducks with 24 points on 7-of-13 shooting, while Cook and Benjamin each had double-doubles; Cook had 13 points and 12 rebounds, while Benjamin added 11 and 12. Not to be overlooked were the well-rounded contributions of Oregon's freshmen. Brooks had 10 points, five assists and three rebounds, Bell had six points with six rebounds and four blocks, and Benson added five points, four rebounds and three assists.
Quotable: "The guys want to compete. Jordan diving on some balls and blocking some shots, Casey took two big charges — after he took those charges, they didn't drive for a while — so I thought that was a big factor. Those little things, Jordan getting on the floor, Theo diving on the floor last play of the game, that's a contagious thing. It can go the other way too … so I really like our effort." — Altman
"We're good on offense, but we're better on defense and that's our plan. That's what we're harping on, and coach is getting on me about. We need to be a better defensive team, and we're going to take it from there." — Young
"They weren't scoring on the first shot. If we tighten up the rebounding a little bit, tighten up bumping guys when they're moving against us … but today the zone did help us. … This is the best offensive team we've faced, so I felt like (we took a positive step defensively)." — Altman
"We're off to a good start here. It's only 10 percent of our schedule, so we've got a long ways to go, but it's a good start." — Altman
What It Means: With the effectiveness of the zone and their highlight-reel plays offensively, the Ducks proved their quickness can give them an edge against teams that don't present a major size mismatch. It should be a very confident team that leaves town Saturday to kick off a road trip, undeterred by the prospect of facing two ranked teams.
Odds and Ends: Cook and Benjamin were the first UO teammates with double-doubles in the same game since Mike Moser and Johnathan Loyd on Dec. 8, 2013, at Ole Miss. … Young went 7-of-7 from the free-throw line, improving to 18-of-18 through three games. … Toledo shot .379, and thus the Ducks have yet to allow an opponent to shoot .400 or better this season.
Up Next: The Ducks enter the bracket portion of the Legends Classic, facing No. 24 Michigan in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Monday (6:30 p.m. PT, ESPN3) and then either Villanova or Virginia Commonwealth on Tuesday.