Three takeaways from Oregon's nail-biting win over Washington State

After a disastrous weekend that put their NCAA tournament hopes in serious jeopardy, the Oregon Ducks needed to find a way to win Monday.

They did just that, but it didn’t come easy. The Ducks prevailed with a nail-biting 62-59 over Washington State at Matthew Knight Arena to improve to 17-8 on the season and 10-4 in Pac-12 play.

Oregon entered the day very much on the bubble for an NCAA tournament berth; ESPN’s Joe Lunardi listed the Ducks as one of the “first four teams out” in his latest bracket predictions. Monday’s win should be enough to at least give them some breathing room, but many of the flaws that have plagued the Ducks all year were present against the Cougars.

Here are three takeaways from Oregon’s pivotal win in Eugene.

Late-game issues

With one minute to go Monday night, Oregon led Washington State 62-53 after a three-pointer from Will Richardson. At that moment, it seemed as though the Ducks had sealed the victory and were even set to cover the -3.5 Vegas line.

Over the next 60 seconds of play, though, the Ducks: missed the front end of a 1-and-1, gave up an offensive rebound at the other end that led to a cougars’ three-pointer, turned the ball over in their own backcourt to set up another Washington State three, missed the front end of another 1-and-1 to give the Cougars a chance to tie the game on the last possession, and surrendered another offensive rebound that led to one final Washington State three at the buzzer.

That last shot from Efe Abogidi rimmed out, and Oregon escaped with the win. But the Ducks gave Washington State every possible opportunity to take back control of the game.

All season long, Oregon has had issues closing out games. But Monday was maybe the most egregious instance yet.

“We’ve gotta get a lot tougher handling the ball late,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “We’ve got vet guards who have to do a much better job. Obviously, the free throws have been a problem.

“But we had to find a way to win. This time of year, everybody knows everybody. There’s not a lot of easy baskets.”

N’Faly Dante’s continued improvement

Oregon big-man N’Faly Dante finished tied with De’Vion Harmon for a team-high 13 points. That’s the most Dante has scored in a conference game this season, and he also grabbed 10 rebounds to notch his second double-double in Pac-12 play.

After a down game against Cal on Saturday, Dante played with a ton of energy against the Cougars and seemed to take another step forward in his progression. He ran the floor well, and even did some dirty work for the Ducks during a few second-half moments where he battled hard for loose balls.

On a night when Oregon’s four leading scorers — Harmon, Richardson, Quincy Guerrier, and Jacob Young — shot a combined 14-for-38 (36.8 percent) from the field, every one of Dante’s buckets proved crucial.

Dante’s impact is still somewhat limited, as Altman has him on a pitch count of sorts that holds him to around 20 minutes per game. But he and Franck Kepnang formed a nice platoon for the Ducks on Monday and combined for 24 of Oregon 62 points.

“Their effort — they saved us,” Altman said of Dante and Kepnang. “I thought they played really good. You know, we’ve gotta get a lot tougher; that’s the statement of the game. We’ve gotta get tougher on the boards.”

Offensive dissapearing act

Oregon did not score a point for the first 6:02 of the second half. It missed eight field goals and one technical foul free throw during that time.

Stretches like those are killing the Ducks this season. For all the offensive ability present on this roster — and there is plenty — they go through far too many prolonged scoring droughts.

These are the types of games that Oregon’s veteran, savvy players are supposed to be taking over. Richardson, Guerrier, Young, and Harmon are all capable scorers who simply haven’t consistently brought it on the offensive end this season. Altman has more or less limited his rotation to seven players at this point, with Rivaldo Soares playing just six minutes Monday.

Over the next few weeks, Oregon will live and die by the play of its veteran stars. On Monday, those players did nothing to reassure fans that this is a team capable of making a deep tournament run.

“I thought our energy was really good except for the first six minutes of the second half,” Altman said. “We were stuck in the mud. We don’t score a few baskets, and the baskets we gave to them — we just weren’t ready to play. … With the exception of those first six minutes, I thought our energy was pretty good.

“We’re just not shooting it very well.”