Oregon Ducks suffer disastrous loss to Arizona State; "We got beat in every facet of the game"

During his pregame radio interview on Thursday, Oregon head coach Dana Altman aptly stated what the evening’s showdown with Arizona State meant for his program.

“Now we’ve got no excuses,” Altman said.

The Ducks entered Thursday as healthy as they’ve been all season. Senior guard Jermaine Couisnard was available after a lengthy injury layoff. Ditto for junior guard Keeshawn Barthelemy and sophomore center Nate Bittle.

After months of injury woes and sporadic performances, Altman’s Ducks were near full strength Thursday and seemingly ready to begin delivering on their immense preseason promise.

Instead, they got run out of their own gym.

Oregon was pummeled by Arizona State, 90-73, at Matthew Knight Arena. The Ducks are 9-8 on the season, 3-3 in Pac-12 play, and look lost with 14 games to go in the regular season.

“We got beat in every facet of the game,” Altman said. “I’m really disappointed, obviously. I know our fans are — they should be.

“This is not what you expect from our ball team and our program.”

The Sun Devils came into this week shooting 30.6% on the season from three-point range as a team.

Against the Ducks, they went 13-for-29 (45%) on the night from downtown.

“(Arizona State) got whatever they wanted,” Altman said. “They haven’t shot the ball that well, but when you give somebody good looks early and they get it rolling. … We didn’t even have a deflection for the first nine minutes of the game.”

Arizona State’s Desmond Cambridge Jr. led all scorers with 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting.

Will Richardson led the Ducks with 16 points and four steals, and N’Faly Dante added 14 points and eight boards.

Oregon found success in the opening minutes by dumping the ball inside to Dante and appeared to have found a mismatch in the post with their senior center.

But whatever positive moments the Ducks flashed early were negated by a woeful defensive performance.

Arizona State buried a barrage of open three-pointers early and led 25-12 less than 10 minutes into the game.

With 8:07 to go in the first half, they had pushed that lead to 35-14.

From that point, Oregon never trimmed the Arizona State lead shorter than 15 points.

“Being a lot more physicals in screens, with our hand activity,” Altman said when asked what his team could have done to slow down the Sun Devils’ shooting. “We only had four deflections in the first half; that’s just our activity. That was everybody.

“We didn’t contest shots inside and we obviously didn’t contest shots on the perimeter to start the game.”

The Ducks shifted to a 1-3-1 zone defense to start the second half and looked more competent on that end of the floor late in the evening.

But it was too little, too late by they found their footing.

One of the lone bright spots on the night for Oregon was the return of Barthelemy, who missed the last 13 games with a foot injury.

Barthelemy scored seven points in 12 minutes and had some bright moments in the second half.

“We thought 15 minutes max today,” Altman said of Oregon’s plan to reacclimate Barthelemy into the lineup. “But with the game going like it did, he wanted to get back in there late. … He did some good things in the second half. The first half, he looked a little out of sorts but got his legs under him a little bit.”

Oregon will look to bounce back quickly as it heads into one of its toughest matchups of the season.

The Ducks will welcome No. 9 Arizona (14-2, 3-2) to Matthew Knight Arena Saturday at 3 p.m. with hopes of notching a much-needed resume-boosting win.

“We’re gonna need the whole team,” Altman said. “We’ve got some depth. If I had the answer, obviously I would go that way.

“We’ll be up all night trying to figure it out as a coaching staff.”