In what Johnathan Loyd said was one of the Oregon men’s basketball team’s best all-around games this season, the Ducks (7-0) beat Cal Poly (2-5) 82-61 to finish the Global Sports Hardwood Challenge with a perfect 3-0 record.
The two teams traded baskets early on before Waverly Austin finished a Loyd alley-oop to ignite an 11-5 Oregon run. Minutes later, Loyd hooked up with Richard Amardi for another oop, putting the Ducks ahead 22-12 before a media timeout.
A Ridge Shipley hit from distance cut Oregon’s lead to seven after the timeout, but a 14-3 Oregon spurt increased its advantage back to 18 on the heels of three connections from downtown by Loyd and another by Joseph Young. Oregon would finish the half ahead 44-32 on 58.3 percent shooting.
The scoring slowed down in the second half, with the teams again trading buckets for the first five minutes. Despite not making a field goal for nearly three minutes, the Ducks maintained a 16-point advantage thanks to the foul-happy Mustangs, who were in the double bonus with over 12 minutes to go.
A 17-2 run put Oregon ahead 72-45 on Young’s third triple of the game, all but ending any hopes Cal Poly had of pulling an upset on the road. Oregon killed the clock the rest of the way and attempted only eight shots from the field, riding what would eventually be 17 team fouls on Cal Poly, which translated into 16 second-half points for Oregon.
Amardi and Loyd led the way for the Ducks. Amardi put in 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting, his second-straight game with double-digit scoring. He added six boards to lead the team in rebounding. Loyd cooled off after scoring 11 first-half points, finishing with 13 on 5-for-7 shooting including 3-for-5 from behind the arc. He added five rebounds and five assists.
“A couple lapses here and there but all in all I think we played one of the best games so far this year, defensive-wise for sure,” Loyd said following the win. “We were locked in (and) focused on it.”
“I thought our guys played well,” assistant coach Tony Stubblefield said. “Three games in three days we knew it would be tough, but our guys came out and played with a lot of energy, stayed focused. One thing we really wanted to do was concentrate on defending and rebounding. I thought our guys really came out and put a much better effort in to defending and rebounding.”
Oregon has a week off until its next game, a road date with Ole Miss, which will be followed by a game in Portland’s Moda Center against Illinois. The Ducks’ game in Oxford will present the toughest matchup environment-wise, given the team’s only road game of the season was at a neutral site.
“These are the teams you wanna play,” Loyd said. “It’s a true test and it’s going to be the first true road game so that’ll be fun. We have to come together and see what kind of team we’ve got.”
Noteworthy
– Elgin Cook co-led the Ducks in scoring with 14 points and leads the team in shooting at 63.6 percent.
– Joseph Young made four of eight free throws, bringing his free-throw percentage down to 83.6. Young started 30-for-31 this season.
– Head coach Dana Altman was absent from the postgame press conference. Stubblefield said, “(Altman’s) in a little bit of back pain. It’s been three long days for him but he’ll be alright.”
Follow Madison Guernsey on Twitter @guernseymd