After suffering two disappointing defeats at the hands of Portland and Montana, the Ducks rebounded with a resounding 89-66 victory over Montana State Saturday at Mac Court.
Playing without Tajuan Porter, Joevan Catron and Matthew Humphrey, Oregon (4-2) took control of the game midway through the first half and cruised from there. Teondre Williams led the Ducks with 19 points and Michael Dunigan returned from a leg injury to add 15 points.
"One of the adjustments we've made as a staff was we felt like we were pressing ourselves too much in practice," head coach Ernie Kent said. "We wanted to get out and run and go back to what we like to call ?Oregon Basketball'."
The Ducks' shooting prowess returned as they shot an even 50 percent from the field on 30-of-60 from the floor. But where Oregon dominated the Bobcats (2-3) was on the glass. The Ducks out rebounded Montana State 49-20. The Ducks also made 23-of-27 free throws.
Branden Johnson led the Bobcats with 16 points and Erik Rush added 14.
Oregon managed to have six players in double figures. Besides Williams and Dunigan, LeKendrick Longmire (15), Jamil Wilson (12), Jeremy Jacob (10) and Garrett Sim (10) also got into the double figure column.
Freshman E.J. Singler was rewarded with his first start of his career and scored eight points and grabbed seven boards.
"He's just a really solid basketball player," Kent said. "He doesn't make a lot of mistakes. It's nice to see him succeed like he did tonight."
It was a team effort for the Ducks, especially since three key components were out, according to Longmire.
"We are all self-motivated in a sense," he said. "We just worked really hard this week knowing we'd be without them."
Montana State's Austin Brown hit a jumper 9:38 left to give the Bobcats a 23-22 lead. After that, the Ducks outscored their opponent 27-12 for rest of the first half to take a commanding 49-35 lead heading into the locker room.
The Bobcats managed to cut the deficit to single digits on a jumper by Johnson with 15 minutes left, at 55-46, but Longmire hit a three to give the Ducks a 12-point lead and the home team would not look back.
"The emphasis in practice was getting back to Oregon basketball getting up and down the court," Singler said. "To get easy buckets."
Oregon will face its stiffest competition in the non-league season next Saturday when it takes travels to the Midwest to take on Missouri in the Pac-10/Big XII Hardwood Series. The game will be at 2 pm Pacific time and will be televised by ESPNU.
