After pulling out a dramatic last-second win Thursday night at Washington, Oregon travels across the state in search of a fourth straight victory to open Pac-12 play.
The Ducks will be in Pullman, Wash., Saturday night to face conference foe Washington State.
Jermaine Couisnard made the winning play for Oregon in the 76-74 victory, driving on Keion Brooks Jr. and converting a layup with 12.6 seconds left. The Ducks survived a potential game-winning 3-point attempt by Paul Mulcahy and left Seattle 11-3 overall and 3-0 in the conference.
The Ducks are tied with Arizona State for first in the Pac-12, with No. 10 Arizona among four teams one game back entering Saturday. It might be early in the last Pac-12 season, but it’s better to start out on top.
“Any time you go on the road, you gotta find a way to win and the guys did that,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “I’m pleased for the guys. They battled and found a way at the end, showed a little composure, made some free throws at the end. The guys found a way.”
Freshman point guard Jackson Shelstad is the Ducks’ leading scorer at 14.9 points per game, sinking 50.4 percent of his shots from the field.
Meanwhile, the Cougars (10-4, 1-2) got off the schneid in Pac-12 play with a 65-58 home decision Thursday night against Oregon State. Oscar Cluff came off the bench to score a career-high 20 points as Washington State erased a 24-21 halftime deficit.
Cluff and his teammates have struggled to score at times, due to the lack of consistent 3-point shooting. The loss of Kansas transfer Joseph Yesefu (hip) for the season took one of the team’s better shooters out of the equation.
“We have to do some different things offensively to kind of handle that,” said Cougars coach Kyle Smith. “It’s not easy and the best way (to break out) is to make some perimeter shots — but I’m not sure that’s necessarily our constitution.”
The Ducks own a 175-129 lead in the all-time series.
–Field Level Media