Oregon will try to move to 5-0 at home and run its overall winning streak to three games when the Ducks face California Baptist of the Western Athletic Conference on Tuesday night in Eugene, Ore.
Oregon (6-2) is facing Cal Baptist for the first time ever. The Ducks are coming off a 71-49 win over UTEP last Saturday, in which Jermaine Couisnard’s 18 points and five steals led the way.
The Ducks have made it this far with a roster that is without four scholarship players. For the moment, three players who were expected to play major roles — N’Faly Dante, Nate Bittle and Jesse Zarzuela — are out due to injury.
Oregon is at its best in backcourt depth, and Cousinard is the team’s leading scorer at 13.3 points per game. But several other Ducks guards are major contributors, including Jackson Shelstad (10.8 ppg), Keeshawn Barthelemy (10.3), Kario Oquendo (9.0), Brennan Rigsby (9.0) and Jadrian Tracey (8.1). All six see regular playing time.
“It was just me preparing. This whole week, I had a lot of time preparing. Getting shots, feeling confident, knowing where I wanted to score the ball,” Couisnard said after his performance on Saturday. “That was a big thing for me.”
The Lancers of Riverside, Calif., are also 6-2 and already 1-1 in WAC games. They had won four in a row until a home loss to conference foe Utah Tech last week.
Dominique Daniels Jr. led Cal Baptist with a career-high 30 points in the 72-69 loss; he took 24 of his team’s 56 shots. The 5-foot-10 guard is averaging 18 points per game.
Cal Baptist does have an upset of a Pac-12 opponent it can use for motivation against the Ducks. The Lancers stunned Washington 73-64 in Seattle last season for their first-ever win over a Pac-12 program.
The Lancers have players from six different countries on their roster, including Australia, France, Brazil, Canada and Venezuela.
–Field Level Media