Eric Williams Jr. electrified the home crowd and his teammates with a three-quarter-court bank shot at the halftime buzzer, and host Oregon rolled to a 78-56 win over archrival Oregon State on Saturday night in Eugene, Ore.
Jacob Young’s 17 points and 15 from Will Richardson led four Ducks in double figures as Oregon took a 19-point lead into halftime and cruised in the second half.
Williams and De’Vion Harmon added 14 points each for the Ducks (13-7, 6-3 Pac-12).
Roman Silva’s 17 points paced the Beavers (3-15, 1-7), who lost their fifth straight game.
Jarod Lucas added 12 points for the Beavers, who have had a nightmare of a season after capturing the Pac-12 tournament championship last season and going on an historic run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
Oregon has won seven of its last eight.
Oregon State led by five early, but the Ducks went on an 11-2 run to take a 16-12 lead with 11:21 left in the first half. The Beavers regained the lead but the Ducks used a 12-0 run to go up 28-17.
Williams’ pass down low was on target to Franck Kepnang for a dunk and a 30-19 Oregon lead, and Young drilled a sideline 3-pointer with 3:40 left to make it 37-22.
The Ducks were never seriously challenged after that, as Williams had 12 of his points in the first 20 minutes, including his buzzer-beater. Williams let fly after he stole the ball with three seconds to play in the first half. The shot went off the backboard and through the net, and the Ducks streamed off the bench to swarm him.
Oregon made 54.5 percent of its shots from the floor and held the Beavers to 26.3 percent shooting in the first half.
In the second half, they maintained a healthy double-digit lead, with Richardson crossing over Lucas to free himself for a 3 that made it 60-41 with 11:53 to play.
The Beavers never got closer than a 17-point deficit after that.
–Field Level Media
