Three takeaways from Oregon's 68-60 win over Stanford

Oregon found a way to win ugly Thursday night at Matthew Knight Arena and outlasted visiting Stanford 68-60.

The Ducks are now 16-7 on the season and 9-3 in Pac-12 play and climbed to second in the conference standings with their win over the Cardinal. De’Vion Harmon led the Ducks with 21 points on a night when their primary scorers struggled mightily.

Here are three takeaways from Oregon’s crucial win at MKA.

Dante dominant early

Oregon big-man N’Faly Dante got off to a sensational start Thursday and was at the heart of many of the good things the Ducks did in the first half. After an up-and-down road trip against the mountain schools last weekend, Dante was electric from the get-go against the Cardinal and turned in some of his best minutes of the season.

He made a handful of game-changing plays on the defensive end early in the first half and was a constant threat both around the rim and in transition on offense. Dante finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, two steals, and one block in just 19 minutes.

He wasn’t as much of a factor in the second half as Oregon went with a smaller lineup late in the game, but his defensive intensity was key for the Ducks early on.

Dante said afterward that Oregon coach Dana Altman has encouraged him to chase more blocked shots on the defensive end in order to be a more influential, disruptive presence.

“I thought he got us started, he blocked one early,” Altman said of Dante. “I thought he was active. He did a lot of good things — I thought he was much better. … Whether it’s 20 minutes that he plays or 25, his activity is really important to us.”

Will Richardson starts slow, ends strong

Oregon star guard Will Richardson might have had the worst half of his career on Thursday.

The Ducks’ leading scorer and one of the top scorers in the Pac-12, Richardson went 0-for-8 from the field in the first half. The standout senior has bailed the Ducks out of trouble time and time again this season, but he couldn’t buy a bucket during the first 20 minutes.

Credit where it’s due, though: when the Ducks needed him most, Richardson came to life. He got his first bucket of the game with 10 minutes left in regulation, and he converted a massive and-one with 7:03 to go to provide a spark for an Oregon offense that badly needed one. A few minutes later, he answered a Stanford three-pointer with a step-back three of his own to push the Oregon lead to 57-47 with 4:27 to go.

Richardson finished with 12 points on 3-of-14 shooting and six assists. It’s unlikely that he will deliver such a crooked stat line again anytime soon, but it feels significant that Oregon was able to grind out a win when its best player was struggling in such a noticeable way.

“That’s why we have a lot of guys that can score, right?” De’Vion Harmon said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can get a bucket. Will still had 12 (points) but he also had six assists and zero turnovers. So it tells how much he affects the game in other areas.”

Offense goes cold in second half

A consistent, concerning trend for Oregon this season has been its offense going stagnant for long stretches of games. That problem showed up once again Thursday.

With 16:37 to go in the second half, Dante slammed home a massive dunk to give the Ducks a 40-26 lead — its largest of the game.

A little over six minutes later that lead had shrunk to three. Stanford used a 14-3 run during that stretch to claw its way back into the game when Oregon should have already put the nail in the Cardinal coffin. Instead, the Ducks shot 1-of-8 from the field while Stanford slowly but surely chipped away at their lead.

Oregon was able to stabilize down the stretch and found some timely buckets. But with so little margin for error over the next few weeks, the Ducks can hardly afford those types of offensive lulls against quality opponents. Sooner or later, they are going to prove costly.

“What went wrong is they got a bunch of shots at the rim and a bunch of offensive rebound put-backs,” Altman said. “We missed some good opportunities and we hurried a couple of shots inside.”