Oregon looked closer to its usual self Sunday night as the team shot 55 percent from the field en route to a 100-82 victory over the San Francisco Dons.
The Ducks presented a balanced scoring attack that included six players scoring double-digit points for the first time since a half dozen Ducks put up 10 or more points against Willamette in 2010. Elgin Cook led the way with 18 on 5-for-8 shooting and 8-for-11 from the charity stripe.
“Elgin really helped us,” head coach Dana Altman said following the game. “He made some tough shots, was active on the boards. I thought he was the difference maker there.”
Cook made the most of his 26 minutes, totaling six rebounds, three steals and three assists along with a team-leading 18 points.
The Dons shot just 36.8 percent from the field in the game but hung around. They trailed by as much as 11 late in the first half but closed out the period with consecutive makes from distance by Chris Adams, closing Oregon’s lead to five at the intermission despite being outshot 51.7 percent to 31.6 percent.
A quick 6-0 run by the Dons cut the lead to 44-41 less than two minutes into the second half. The two teams traded baskets until the Ducks put together an 8-0 run to work the lead back to 13 at 59-46. But San Francisco wasn’t ready to give up. They went on a 9-2 run to cut Oregon’s lead to 61-55 with just under 11 minutes to play in the second half.
Then Oregon’s fast break scoring got into a rhythm and San Francisco got into foul trouble. Kruize Pinkins picked up the team’s 10th foul at the 6:43 mark, after which the Ducks shot 16 free throws. Oregon’s lead remained in double digits for the rest of the game, getting as large as 19 on three separate occasions. Along with Cook, Mike Moser (13), Johnathan Loyd (11), Joseph Young (12), Damyean Dotson (17) and Jason Calliste (16) were point happy for the Ducks. Moser added eight boards and swatted three San Francisco shot attempts and Loyd contributed six assists.
Dotson (7-for-12) finally got going after struggling through his first three games. The sophomore totaled 24 points on 7-for-26 shooting before Sunday night after being one of Oregon’s top performers a season ago.
“Just not thinking about it as much,” Dotson said of his improved play. “I just let it come to me. In the first couple games I felt like I was forcing it, pressuring myself to score and stuff like that, just worrying about scoring and now just trying to work on defense and rebounding, that’s it. (The offense) came with it.”
Oregon’s balanced scoring is something new this season. Young had been the primary scorer, but the Ducks proved they can spread the ball around and get contributions from everybody.
“I thought our ball movement offensively wasn’t too bad,” Altman said. “I thought we popped around pretty good, made shots for each other. I thought offensively we did some really good things.”
“We moved the ball real well today and we took advantage of a lot of mismatches as well,” Moser said after the game. “They really couldn’t condense our ball screens so a lot of guys had to come over and help, so we had a lot of different open options.”
The Ducks shot lights out from beyond the three-point arc, going 11-for-19 from distance (57.9 percent). Their free throw shooting was uncharacteristically bad, though, as the team shot 23-for-36 (63.9 percent) including a 2-for-6 effort by Young at the line.
San Francisco shot poorly from the field (36.8 percent) and even worse from the perimeter (28.6 percent). The Dons were led by Pinkins, who recorded the team’s only double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Oregon’s (4-0) next game is Friday at home against Pacific, the first of three games the Ducks will play as part of a round-robin tournament, the Global Sports Hardwood Challenge. Cal Poly and North Dakota will also make the trip to Eugene.
The Dons (3-3) return home for their next four games, the first of which is against Sonoma State on Wednesday.
Follow Madison Guernsey on Twitter @guernseymd