Adama Bal scored 21 of his game-high 25 points in the second half as Santa Clara pulled away from Oregon late on its way to an 88-82 win in the Emerald Coast Classic on Friday in Niceville, Florida.
Bal, a transfer from Arizona, scored 10 straight Broncos points over an 88-second stretch, the turning point in Santa Clara’s win. Oregon led 57-55 on Kwame Evans Jr.’s layup with 11:51 to play, but Bal spurred an 8-0 run to give the Broncos the lead for good.
Seven-foot center Christoph Tilly added 18 points and seven rebounds for Santa Clara, which improved to 6-0 and faces Ohio State on Saturday, the final day of the tournament.
A free throw by Tilly gave Santa Clara its largest lead of the game, 82-71, with 2:04 to play. But Oregon (4-1) stormed back to make it 84-80 on a 3-pointer by Brennan Rigsby with 49 seconds left.
That was as close as the Ducks got.
Santa Clara outscored Oregon 42-28 in the paint, with the Ducks not able to match the Broncos’ size inside. Keyshawn Barthelemy led the Ducks with 17 points and Evans added 16.
Santa Clara made 51.7 percent of its shots in the first half to take a 39-34 lead into halftime. All nine players who saw action in the first 20 minutes scored, led by Jake Ensminger with nine points.
The Ducks trailed by as many as seven points in the first half but stayed close with seven 3-pointers. The Broncos led throughout the half, but Oregon got two treys each from Barthelemy and freshman guard Jackson Shelstad, the two-time Oregon state player of the year in high school.
Barthelemy’s 3-pointer at the 3:26 mark cut Santa Clara’s lead to 31-30. Shelstad’s eight points led the Ducks in the first half.
Shelstad was making his season debut, but the Ducks were without their two top big men, N’Faly Dante (hamstring) and Nate Bittle (wrist). Their absence made it easier for Tilly to operate down low.
Oregon managed just two points off 10 Santa Clara turnovers, compared to the Broncos’ 16 points off 10 Oregon miscues.
–Field Level Media