Instant Recap: Oregon beats Portland 80-70 in OT

On Tuesday evening, the Ducks hosted the Portland Pilots at home in another tune-up game. Oregon has two tune-up games before their first real test on the 26th. In this contest the Ducks were favored by 26.5 and were able to a step closer to being fully healthy. Georgetown transfer Supreme Cook went through pregame warmups and ultimately wouldn’t play.

First Half:

Oregon rolled out a lineup of Shelstad, Bamba, Evans Jr, Angel, and Bittle. No surprises there, but for Portland they roll out a small ball lineup. Mackinnon, Austin, Masic, Rapp, Jones for the Pilots.

Jackson Shelstad shot the first three shots of the night for Oregon, making his third, knocking down a 3. Following a Nate Bittle slam, Portland calls timeout. Oregon leading 8-7 with 15:34 left in the first half, Portland doing a good job of slowing the game down.

At the second media timeout the Ducks led 12-11 with 11:20 remaining in the half. Still playing very slow and exactly to Portland’s gameplan. After TJ Bamba hit a three with 8:13 remaining in the half, Portland would again call a timeout. Ducks leading 17-16, in a very sloppy offensive game, spacing looks bad and Oregon isn’t hitting open shots from deep.

Oregon’s refusal to drive the ball over clanking threes was very pathetic in the first half. Altman called a timeout with the Ducks trailing 17-20, 6:06 left in the half.

Ducks trailing 22-28 following another offensive turnover from the Ducks, 3:23 to play.

At the end of the first half, Oregon trails 23-31. Not driving the ball, settling for 3 point shots. A majority of the three pointers were open as well, I’d like to add. Oregon went 9/33 (27.7%) from the field and 4/17 (23.5%) from deep in the first half. Absolutely disgusting numbers, Ducks need to drive the ball and play much better defense than they are currently. Luckily, the Ducks held Portland’s best player, Vukasin Masic, to a 1/7 start.

Second Half:

With 16:29 left in the half, the Ducks closed the gap a bit, still trailing 31-35 however. Officials are certainly letting the teams (Portland) play physical down low.

Oregon trailing 39-46 with 11:25 remaining, some phantom calls being made now by the officials. I’m not sure how else to say this but whenever Oregon puts a body on a Portland player, it’s a foul on Oregon. This is one of the worst performances from an Oregon team, in a long time.

Nate Bittle gets a tough shot to fall through a ton of contact, foul called. Media timeout and the Ducks trail 43-54.

Following another Portland bank-in three, they lead 57-47 over Oregon with 5:29 to go. The Ducks continue to shoot the 3-ball when it’s very apparent that’s the shot Portland wants them to shoot. Oregon is 4/25 from deep right now, which is 16%.

Keeshawn Barthelemy is on a heater right now, knocking down 2 three’s and a mid-range to help cut the lead down to 4. That’s 8-straight for Barthelemy and the Ducks trail 59-63 with 2:13 remaining in the game.

At the end of the game there was a review that was (or at least looked like) requested by Portland’s coach. Refs determined that it wasn’t requested by Portland, if they ruled that the foul wasn’t on TJ Bamba, then it would have resulted in a technical on Portland. Instead Oregon made 1/2 free throws at the line.

Keeshawn Barthelemy made a huge three with 29.9 seconds remaining and fouled to send Portland to the line. The Portland Pilots miss both at the line and lead 67-65 with 27 seconds left. Jadrian Tracey drove to the hoop and equalized the game at 67 with a few seconds remaining. Portland got a shot off but couldn’t get it to go, overtime next.

Overtime:

In Oregon’s first overtime possession, Jackson Shelstad’s rough night would continue. He at the moment of typing this, is 4/18 and 1/8 from deep. Oregon started overtime looking like a completely different team, with a five point lead, 2:33 left in OT.

Jackson Shelstad FINALLY saw a shot fall with 2:19 left in OT, giving Oregon the 74-67 lead. Tracey pokes a ball loose for a career high 4 steals. The impact Jadrian Tracey has had on this game, cannot be measured. Ducks lead 76-67 with 44 seconds remaining.

Nate Bittle would make two free throws, and extend Oregon’s lead to 78-67. Portland would score very quickly, drawing an and-one, converted. Portland gave Oregon all they could handle and more tonight. This was very nearly the worst Oregon loss in my lifetime. I hope this serves as a wakeup call for the team, because at times it was incredibly ugly. Ducks wind up winning this contest 80-70 in overtime, moving to 3-0 on the year.

Brief Takeaways:

Oregon has to get Jackson Shelstad into a groove offensively, this team has really good potential with him. The fouling absolutely has to get figured out too, especially from the veterans such as TJ Bamba and Brandon Angel. Kwame Evans Jr was a ghost in this game, Ducks need to figure out how to get him more involved as well. If this game had an MVP award, it would go to Keeshawn Barthelemy, who really saved this game for Oregon.

Ducks back in action on Sunday evening against Troy. 5pm EST/ 2pm PST on Big Ten Plus again, should hopefully see a much better performance.