The scene at Mac Court with 7:56 left to go pretty much tells the story.
The majority of the 7,117 Duck fans got up from their seat and headed for the exits. The home team was down 71-44 to the Sun Devils and there was absolutely no hope of a comeback.
Oregon was shell-shocked by an 18-6 run early in the game and never recovered as Arizona State easily handled the Ducks in a 76-57 decision Thursday night. Oregon fell to 2-2 in conference play and 10-6 overall. ASU won its third straight Pac-10 game and improved to 13-5 overall.
"To get back here and play the way we have played in the last couple of days, it's a little disappointing," Head Coach Ernie Kent said. "We've lost of our toughness and we got to get it back."
The Ducks showed no toughness early on, the Sun Devils rattled Oregon with the matchup zone that has ASU leading the nation in scoring defense. Oregon didn't handle the ball well and when they did manage to get a shot up, they weren't falling.
ASU's offense used a variety of attacks, but it was the three-point shot that did the most damage. The Sun Devils hit 8-of-13 from downtown in the first half alone. They wound up hitting 10 treys on 20 attempts.
The Sun Devils were led by Rihards Kuksiks with 25 points, including four threes. All of Kuksiks' deep shots were from NBA range. Scouts from the Portland Trailblazers, including head coach Nate McMillan had to be salivating at the Latvian's range. McMillan was also there to watch his son, Jamelle, perform. The younger McMillan is a guard for the Devils.
Ty Abbott added 16 and Derek Glasser poured in 12.
Arizona State definitely took the foot off the pedal midway through the second half or this game could have been a 40-point blowout.
"I thought the guard play by Arizona State was just superb," Kent said. "But we had breakdowns defensively all over the floor. That put us in too many rotations during the game and they did a great job in running their stuff."
Perhaps the most tale-telling moment of the night game when LeKendrick Longmire had a breakaway then proceeded to miss the dunk. But it was Longmire who played the best basketball for the Ducks as he led Oregon with 11 points and six rebounds, five of them coming on the offensive end.
"We're not playing defense, point-blank-period," said Longmire. "You don't play defense in the Pac-10, you don't win. Everyone is involved in that. We thought we had it figured out, but obviously we don't."
Somehow, Kent has to find the team that won two games in the state of Washington, because right now, that team is MIA. And he doesn't have much time to find it as Arizona comes to Mac Court with former coach Lute Olson as one of the honorary captains. Opening tip is set for 1:30 pm.
