The Oregon men’s basketball team (24-9) won its first game of the 2014 NCAA tournament Thursday afternoon, beating BYU(23-12) 87-68. The Ducks will face Wisconsin in the round of 32 on Saturday.
Oregon sophomore Elgin Cook had a huge homecoming, scoring a career-high 23 points off the bench on 8-for-9 shooting. The Milwaukee native added eight rebounds and converted 7-of-10 free throw attempts.
Joseph Young scored 19 points and Jason Calliste added 14, 11 of which came at the charity stripe.
The Ducks out-shot BYU 50 percent to 32.8 percent from the floor and didn’t shoot well from three point range (2-for-13) but were able to break BYU’s zone and score inside often, highlighted by Cook’s big night.
Tyler Haws led BYU in scoring with 19.
Early on, it looked to be Damyean Dotson who was having a coming out party, not Cook. Dotson scored four of Oregon’s first six points and was playing more aggressive on offense than he has most of this season. Oregon hit each of its first four shots from the field, and although it was way too early to make any assumptions, the seventh-seeded Ducks looked to be on their way to a win.
Oregon maintained a steady lead over BYU for the first 10 minutes before beginning to pull away. A Mike Moser bucket inside put the Ducks up 35-21 — their largest lead to that point — prompting a BYU timeout.
Two Calliste free throws at the 3:07 mark increased Oregon’s lead to 39-24, but the two points would be Oregon’s last of the half. The Cougars scored the final seven points of the period and trailed 39-31 at halftime.
BYU inched up on Oregon early in the second half and eventually climbed to within 56-53 on Matt Carlino’s three point jumper with 12:03 remaining, prompting an Oregon timeout.
Out of the timeout, Johnathan Loyd found Cook for one of his six assists, as Cook drew contact from Carlino and hit the lay-in. Cook sunk the free throw to complete the three-point play, proving to be the turning point for Oregon, whose lead would never fall below six the rest of the way.
The Ducks outscored BYU 28-15 over the final 11 minutes to seal the victory.
“These guys really played well in the second half,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “I thought Elgin Cook had a great game and really finished everything down low. Once they made their run to cut it to three I thought he made a big play there and got a three-point play then we got some stops and were able to pull away.”
Though the Ducks shot poorly from distance, an area they’ve relied on throughout the season, a strong inside presence helped them shoot 50 percent from the field.
“I thought we did a good job of finding (Cook) along the baseline,” Altman said. “They (BYU) went into a zone and we got some penetration and had a lot of good passes to him on the baseline. I thought our guys did a good job of finding him … then he finished.”
Cook’s extended minutes were partly due to Oregon foul trouble. Mike Moser picked up his fourth foul with 14:22 remaining. Ben Carter and Richard Amardi also finished with four personals.
“When Moser didn’t play real well Elgin stepped in and played great,” Altman said. “That’s what you like from a ball team is that you’ve got some depth so that when one player gets in foul trouble that you have someone else to step up.”
Moser said he knew Cook was destined for a big game since he heard they were playing in his hometown.
“I knew he (Cook) was fired up right from the selection show,” Moser said. “I think he played inspired basketball. Any time you have a homecoming in front of your friends and family you get inspired.”
BYU was without starter Kyle Collinsworth, who tore his ACL in the championship game of the West Coast Conference tournament. Collinsworth led the Cougars in rebounds and assists this season.
“I’m really proud of our team,” BYU head coach Dave Rose said. “I think we had a really exciting week as far as our invitation to the tournament but it was extremely difficult with the injury to Kyle. I think that our ability to fight through some real adveristy and cut it to three there in the second half and had some real momentum and thought maybe we could fight through that, but Oregon was too good.”
Despite his team’s performance, Altman agreed that the loss of Collinsworth was vital to the outcome.
“The difference was Collinsworth not being in there,” Altman said. “It was a benefit for us that he wasn’t able to play.”
The Ducks will play second-seeded Wisconsin on Saturday, which will virtually be a home game for Bo Ryan’s Badgers.
“We know they’re a very good basketball team,” Altman said of Wisconsin. “We won’t have a lot of people cheering for us so the atmosphere will be tough, but that’s okay. Our guys will look forward to the challenge.”
Joshua Vinson contributed to the reporting in this article.
Follow Madison Guernsey on Twitter @guernseymd