Nate Bittle continued to look strong in his return from a wrist injury and long-term illness that forced him out of much of last season, leading Oregon to a 79-48 win over Montana on Friday night in Eugene, Ore.
The Ducks forward followed up a double-double in the season opener with team highs of 17 points and nine rebounds, TJ Bamba scored 14 points and Jadrian Tracey added 12 off the bench to help Oregon improve to 2-0.
Joe Pridgen’s 14 points and nine rebounds led Montana (1-1). The Grizzlies suffered through cold shooting for most of the game and finished just 17 of 50 (34 percent) from the floor.
Oregon won its fifth straight all time against Montana, though both programs had 24-12 records last season. Oregon won the Pac-12 Tournament and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, while the Grizzlies reached the finals of the Big Sky Conference tournament and got to the second round of the College Basketball Invitational.
After Pridgen tipped in a missed shot for a 7-7 tie, Montana went on to miss 10 straight shot attempts and commit six turnovers in a scoring drought that lasted more than nine minutes. The Ducks took advantage and went on a 15-0 run, with five points from Tracey and five from Bamba.
Money Williams made two free throws for the Grizzlies with 7:57 left in the first half to end the lengthy stretch of no points.
Montana made just 6 of 26 first-half shots, and even though Oregon shot 43.2 percent, 3-pointers from Tracey and Bittle with under a minute to play in the half gave the Ducks a 44-20 lead.
Tracey and Bittle had 10 points each to lead Oregon in the first 20 minutes. The pair of returning players hit two 3s each, Bittle’s range for a big man forcing Montana to extend its defense.
Bittle dunked off a fastbreak pass from Brandon Angel with 7:28 to play, giving Oregon a 67-38 lead.
The Ducks outrebounded Montana 42-31 for the game and made six more 3-pointers. Their 31-point win equaled the largest lead of the game.
–Field Level Media
