Oregon might not be ranked at the moment, but the Ducks are sure playing like a Top 25 team.
After a road sweep of UCLA and Southern California when both Los Angeles schools were ranked in the top five, Oregon waited a week to play its next game due to a COVID-19 pause by Washington State. Then, the Ducks led by 38 early in the second half Sunday of their 84-56 rout of Pac-12 Conference rival Washington in Eugene, Ore.
Oregon will try to maintain that form on Tuesday night when it hosts Colorado.
The Ducks (12-6, 5-2 Pac-12) totally dominated the Huskies in winning by their largest margin in the rivalry’s history. And it could have been worse. They opened up a 40-8 first-half lead, took a 35-point advantage (48-13) to halftime and made it 55-17 early in the second half before coach Dana Altman cycled through all his reserves as the game crept to an end.
“The first half, we forced a lot of turnovers, our activity was really good,” Altman said. “I thought we did a lot of good things.”
Will Richardson scored 21 points on just 11 shot attempts, becoming the 37th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points. On the season, he’s Oregon’s leading scorer at 14.8 ppg, canning 46 percent of his 3-pointers.
Meanwhile, Colorado (12-6, 4-4) absorbed a weekend sweep at home from the L.A. schools, including a 71-65 decision on Saturday against then-No. 9 UCLA. The Buffs trailed by 17 in the second half but pulled within 62-61 at the 1:55 mark before their rally fizzled out.
Colorado damaged itself with 21 turnovers, 14 in the first half. It committed 16 on Thursday night in a 61-58 setback to USC.
“We shot ourselves in the foot for the second game in a row with turnovers,” said Buffs coach Tad Boyle. “But our guys battled back.”
Colorado owns a 13-10 lead in the all-time series, although the Ducks took a 60-56 victory in the teams’ last matchup on Feb. 18, 2021.
–Field Level Media
