Ernie Kent said before the season his team was one of the most talented and athletic teams he has had at Oregon. The Ducks offered a first glimpse of how that athleticism would be used, pressing full court the entire 40 minutes in an easy 99-61 exhibition win over Concordia Sunday.
Five different players scored in double figures, led by freshman Jamil Wilson's 17 points.
"I think I did all right," he said. "My conditioning needs to get better. The transition from high school to college . the game is a lot fast and more physical. I need to run more in practice and get faster."
Another newcomer that stepped up to show his skills was sophomore Malcolm Armstead. The Alabama native scored 14 points and had four assists in his 20 minutes of action. Joevan Catron (12), Teondre Williams (12) and Matthew Humphrey (10) all scored in double digits as the Ducks shot 44 percent on an incredible 87 shots for the game.
"It was really good to finally play someone else because we really get tired of beating up on each other in practice," Kent said. "It gives us an opportunity to look at some things and make adjustments."
Oregon came out of the gate on fire as the Ducks built a 33-15 lead on Wilson's three-pointer from the right corner with 8:03 left in the first half. He was 7-of-10 shooting, including a trio of treys.
But the Cavaliers from Portland were able to calm the ship, so to speak for the next 15 minutes of action with some hot shooting from beyond the arc. Concordia took 28 three-pointers, hitting nine of them. But it was two free-throws by Jourdan Sweeney that pulled the Cavs to within 11 points at 48-37 with 17:28 left in the game.
The Ducks responded with more pressure in the backcourt and created turnovers leading to easy shots and Oregon was able to pull away. Concordia turned the ball over 20 times.
"We need to improve our shot selection and make that one extra pass," Kent said. "We had them in the double bonus and we knocked ourselves out of rhythm in what I would call some tough shot selection, some tough threes and some tough drives and we shot the ball a lot better than that in practice."
Oregon ended the game by scoring 51 points in the last 17 minutes of play. Better shot selection helped, but it was the new full-court press that the Ducks have installed in their system that fuelled the offensive outburst.
"We talked to Concordia before and told them we wanted to press," Kent said. "We wanted to work on it. We planned on pressing and I think that's the best way to get a feel for how we want to play right now."
The Ducks will host Lewis and Clark College Nov. 8 for a 6 pm tip-off to conclude their exhibition schedule. Oregon will officially begin the season Nov. 13 against Winston-Salem State.
