N'Faly Dante racks up career-high 21 rebounds, leads Oregon to season-opening win over Georgia
Less than an hour before Oregon’s season-opener was set to tip-off, Ducks’ head coach Dana Altman announced that all-conference center N’Faly Dante would be “limited” on Monday and was expected to play just 10-15 minutes.
Despite battling through a knee injury, though, Oregon’s star big man set the tone on both ends of the floor and led the Ducks to an 82-71 victory over the Georgia Bulldogs at the Hall of Fame series in Las Vegas.
Dante finished with 16 points and a career-high 21 rebounds in 27 minutes.
“I needed to do whatever I needed to do to help my team win,” Dante told TRUTV during a postgame interview. “So, I came out here and did what I loved. (Oregon’s players) helped me. Anytime I tried to show weakness, they told me to keep going. I would do anything for those guys. They’re really important to me.”
Dante, who hasn’t practiced for several weeks, said he felt some discomfort in his hamstring during the game.
“I haven’t run like that in a long time,” he said. “I just gotta push through it.”
Brennan Rigsby added 16 points and six rebounds for the Ducks. Jermaine Couisnard added 14 points, and Nate Bittle tallied 13 points and nine boards.
Oregon 5-star freshman Kwame Evans Jr. made his collegiate debut and scored five points on 2-of-5 shooting in 19 minutes. The Ducks’ two other blue-chip freshmen — Jackson Shelstad and Mookie Cook — were both sidelined due to injury.
Oregon raced out to an 11-1 lead and eventually pushed its lead to 28-11 thanks to some strong play inside. The Ducks racked up 30 points in the paint throughout the first half.
But Georgia’s Jabri Abdur-Rahim poured in 13 first-half points to carry Georgia back into contention and send the Bulldogs into halftime trailing 40-30.
Georgia quickly cut Oregon’s lead to five points after the break. But a couple of timely buckets from Bittle and Couisnard helped the Ducks regain a comfortable advantage.
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Midway through the second half, though, Rigsby helped the Ducks take control of the game for good.
The 6-foot-3 junior threw down an impressive two-handed breakaway dunk to push the Ducks’ lead to 56-46. Then, less than a minute later, he knocked down a three-pointer to make it 59-46.
But the Bulldogs refused to go away quietly and reduced the deficit to 71-60 with 4:10 to go.
Dante pushed the Oregon lead back to 13 points with an emphatic two-handed dunk shortly after. Then, he forced a turnover at the other end, and Rigsby knocked down a three-pointer to push the Ducks’ lead to 76-60 and capture the momentum of the game.
However, Oregon was hindered by some poor free-throw shooting down the stretch and struggled to cope with the Bulldogs full-court press.
Through the second half, the Ducks shot just 8-of-21 (38%) from the charity stripe and turned the ball over nine times.
They survived a few shaky moments in the final minutes, though, and emerged with a win to open the year.
The Ducks will return to Eugene this week and prepare for Friday’s home opener at Matthew Knight Arena. Oregon and Montana are slated to tip off at 6 p.m. PT. The game will air on Pac-12 Networks.
