Oregon rallies past Utah State in NIT first-round win
Earlier this week, Dana Altman said he was going to find out quickly if his team wanted to play for the “O” on their chest now after their NCAA tournament hoops were dashed.
Tuesday evening, Oregon’s players took it upon themselves to answer that question in a profound way.
The Ducks delivered an 83-72 road win over a plucky Utah State team to keep their season alive and advance to the second round of the NIT. Playing without two of their top players and up against a talented Aggies team in a hostile environment, Oregon overcame an early deficit with an emphatic second-half performance.
“I liked the guys’ effort,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “We fought adversity better tonight. When things didn’t go our way, we kind of hung in there. The defensive effort the second half I thought was really good.”
De’Vion Harmon led the Ducks with 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting, and Jacob Young added 17 points and four assists. Franck Kepnang scored nine points and nabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
Oregon (20-14) was missing leading scorer Will Richardson and starting big-man N’Faly Dante, as both missed the trip due to non-COVID-19 related illnesses.
That left the Ducks as notable underdogs against a Utah State team that is better than its record would have you believe. In a raucous environment, that might have spelled doom for an Oregon team that has had a difficult time closing out games even when it has its full array of players available.
But the Ducks got some big contributions from some unsung heroes. Reserve guard Rivaldo Soares played a season-high 30 minutes and scored 13 points, and freshman big-man Nate Bittle blocked three shots and drained his first college three-pointer while playing 14 big minutes.
“Nate hit a big three in the first half — got him going a little bit. I thought he blocked out nice. … Lot of good things. Really happy for the guys.”
It was Kepnang’s contributions, though, that might have swung the game in the Ducks’ favor. Although the stat sheet will only show that he blocked two shots, the sophomore center made life difficult for any Aggie player who tried to drive to the basket and constantly altered shots throughout the evening.
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Kepnang finished with a +/- of 26. Young (+19) was the only Duck who finished better than +7 in that category.
Oregon raced out to a 10-2 lead and seemed unfazed by the frenetic atmosphere at Dee Glenn Smith Spectrum. But that lead was short-lived, as Utah State immediately responded with an 11-0 run to take back the lead.
The Aggies pushed their lead as far as nine points in the first half and threatened to put the game away early. But Oregon stayed in touching distance and went into the break trailing just 37-33.
Whatever was said in the Oregon locker room at halftime worked to great effect. The Ducks came out firing on all cylinders in the second half and ran the Aggies out of the gym.
Oregon outscored Utah State 50-35 over the final 20 minutes, and Young delivered 13 of those points. Soares, Quincy Guerrier, and Eric Williams Jr. had nine points apiece in the second half and Williams Jr. delivered one of the highlights of the season with a massive putback dunk.
Oregon will now set its sights on its second-round matchup at Texas A&M (24-12) this weekend. A tip-off time for the game has not yet been announced.
