Facing a confident California Golden Bears team coming off a historic comeback win vs the Colorado Buffaloes, the Oregon Ducks showed resilience in their 80-73 victory Saturday at Matthew Knight Arena.
The Ducks struggled straight from the tip, as they couldn’t get anything going early on. Cal came out of the gates hot, hitting seemingly every shot they put up, while on the other side of the floor turning the faucet off for the Ducks. Midway through the half, Cal went on a 13-3 run and extended their lead to 18 points.
Facing its largest deficit of the season, Oregon made quick adjustments to get back into the game. It closed the half on a 16-2 run in the final three and a half minutes and trimmed the deficit to just four points going into the half. This late first-half surge was led by Oregon guard Jermaine Couisnard, as he went 4-for-5 from three, with a couple of those capping off the half. He finished the game as Oregon’s leading scorer, with 18 points in 34 minutes.
In addition to the offensive surge, it was the defensive effort that brought the Ducks back into the game. It was apparent that Oregon head coach Dana Altman told his team to bump up their aggression and intensity level. This led to a full-court press that bothered Cal’s guards bringing up the ball, as well as a tight point-of-attack defense in the halfcourt.
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The Ducks were able to carry their late half momentum into the second half, and contain the Golden Bears offense, finishing the game out with their defense.
Limiting California’s “Big three”
Surely Oregon’s main focus heading into this game was how they were going to contain the Golden Bears’ three best players: Jaylon Tyson, Jalen Cone, and Fardaws Aimaq.
Tyson is currently leading the Pac-12 in scoring, averaging over 20 points per game. Tonight, while he still got to that number, scoring exactly 20 points, it didn’t come easy.
Tyson got some good looks to start the game, but once the Ducks made their defensive adjustments. They forced their point-of-attack defense to focus on him. Doing so made him take the ball out of his hands and make other players try to beat them, which ended up working in the Ducks’ favor.
Baskets became limited for Tyson specifically in the second half, as he shot only 3-of-13 from the field.
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Cone, his backcourt running mate, is leading the conference in 3-point attempts and is second in the country with 10 three-point attempts per game.
On Saturday, he was limited to 1-of-8 from three, which was a credit to Oregon’s perimeter defense and ability to switch over the screens that were set for him, making each look he had tough.
California’s center, Aimaq, certainly had two distinct halves. To start the game, he seemingly had his way with whatever he wanted. Despite Oregon’s center Mahamadou Diawara playing strong defense on him, he was getting good looks inside of the paint and finishing with ease. He finished the first half with 14 points. In the second half, he was bottled up entirely, scoring only four points.
How did N’Faly Dante look in his return?
After returning from a successful knee surgery, N’Faly Dante played his first minutes after missing the last 14 games. With both his injury and his teammate Nate Bittle‘s injury, Oregon has been forced to play a version of small ball these last few weeks.
In doing so, the Ducks have found success, as their record reflects that being now 13-3 and 5-0 in conference play.
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Dante played a total of 17 minutes in his return where he came off the bench. While the numbers he put up weren’t anything eye-catching, his presence was felt immediately on the court. Oregon tried to get him going right away with a couple of low post touches, but his first basket came from an emphatic dunk off of a baseline out-of-bounds play. He finished with eight points, four of which came from mid-range jump shots which looked smooth.
Defensively Dante looked strong, protecting the rim with a volleyball-like spike block into the crowd. It was clear that he is still getting his legs back, he caught himself with his hands on his knees winded from the fast-paced gameplay. He will likely see his minutes increase game by game until he gets back to his normal rotation.
Next up
The Ducks will now travel to Boulder, Co. to face a hungry Buffaloes team that is coming off their third loss in a row. Headlined by top-five projected lottery pick Cody Williams, the Buffs will look to spoil Oregon’s perfect conference record.
CORVALLIS, Ore. — Graham Ike matched his career high with 35 points and No. 6 Gonzaga rebounded from a midweek loss to Portland with an 81-61 victory over Oregon State on Saturday.
Tyon Grant-Foster added 15 points for Gonzaga (23-2, 11-1 WCC), which was coming off an 87-80 loss to unranked Portland on Wednesday night that snapped a 15-game winning streak for the Bulldogs. It also ended a 20-game winning streak over the Pilots.
Isaiah Sy had 13 points for Oregon State (13-13, 6-7), which came into the game riding a three-game winning streak.
The loss to Portland will no doubt drop the Bulldogs in the AP Top 25 rankings. Gonzaga and St. Mary’s sit atop the WCC standings with just one conference loss apiece.
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Ike, who played in his third game since returning from an ankle sprain, had seven rebounds. His 35 points matched his career high set against Denver in December 2021.
Oregon State held a narrow lead though the first 10 minutes, but Ike’s 3-pointer gave Gonzaga a 22-20 lead and the Bulldogs led until White’s 2-pointer pulled the Beavers even at 34.
Oregon State couldn’t pull ahead and Gonzaga led 38-34 at the break.
The Bulldogs pushed the lead to as many as nine points early in the second half but Oregon State center Yaak Yaak hit a 3-pointer that closed the gap to 48-53 with 12:24 left.
Davis Fogle’s dunk with 9:07 put Gonzaga up 61-51 as the Zags began to pull away, pushing their lead by 20 points down the stretch.
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The game was a look at the future of the Pac-12. Gonzaga joins the conference as a non-football member when it re-launches next season. The Pac-12 fell apart amid conference realignment in the summer of 2023, leaving Oregon State and Washington State as the lone remaining members.
Gonzaga: Hosts Washington State on Tuesday night.
Oregon State: At San Francisco on Thursday night.
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One of the potential statewide measures vying for the November ballot is calling it quits.
FILE – The rainbow flag, also known as the gay pride flag, is a symbol of LGBT and queer pride, left, along with the transgender flag, right, pictured in 2022.
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Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
A coalition led by the ACLU of Oregon, Basic Rights Oregon and Planned Parenthood has announced it is ending a campaign to amend the Oregon Constitution to guarantee the right to health care for transgender people, abortion and same-sex marriage.
Advocates for LGBTQ+ rights in Oregon had hoped to follow the lead of New York state, which passed a similar measure, Proposition 1, by a wide margin in 2024. They’ve been gathering signatures to qualify an initiative for the November ballot, promoting the measure at Pride events, and raising money.
But on Friday, the coalition announced via an Instagram post that the campaign is over. The coalition thanked community members for their support. It did not offer any explanation as to what led to the change of heart.
“This is a particularly difficult time, as the federal government continues attacking our rights, freedom, and basic humanity,” the post concludes. “We still firmly believe that together, we will build an Oregon where all of us can be who we are, and make our own decisions about our lives and bodies, and access the care that we need.”
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The initiative petition had been endorsed by dozens of left-leaning organizations, including heavyweight labor unions like the AFL-CIO and SEIU Local 503.
Campaign finance records show the coalition’s biggest cash expenditures this year — $177,750 — were for polling and surveys.
The measure, known as Equal Rights for All or Initiative 33, had already faced a rocky path to the ballot. Democratic lawmakers had planned to refer it to voters in 2024, but dropped that plan in a deal to end a six-week long walkout by Republicans.
The political action committee supporting the measure has about $130,000 in cash remaining in its accounts.
Oregon law is already protective of gender-affirming care, requiring insurers and the state’s Medicaid program to cover it when it is medically necessary. Abortion is also covered by public and private insurance and Oregon places no specific gestational limit on it.
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But those policies could change if the balance of power in Salem shifts.
As it is, the Oregon Constitution prohibits discrimination on account of sex. The proposed measure expanded on that, stating that discrimination is also prohibited based on pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation.
It would have also repealed language in the state constitution that bans same-sex marriage. Oregon voters approved that ban in 2004. The provision has been void since 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional.
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The decision leaves in place a permanent injunction from November that blocked troops from deploying to Portland.
FILE – The James R. Browning United States Courthouse building, a courthouse for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is seen in San Francisco on Jan. 8, 2020.
Jeff Chiu / AP
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The Trump administration no longer wants to appeal the decision of a federal judge in Oregon that blocked the president from deploying National Guard troops to Portland.
Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice told a federal appeals court last week they’re no longer interested in challenging the permanent injunction issued by U.S. District Court Judge Karin J. Immergut, which found the president’s attempt to send troops to Portland violated the Constitution.
Late Thursday, attorneys for Oregon, California and the City of Portland, who had previously won the case, indicated they too were ready to let the case go without a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
A panel of 11 judges had been preparing to hear oral arguments on the case in June in Seattle. For Immergut’s ruling to officially stand, those appellate judges still need to sign off on the Justice Department’s decision to drop the case.
Attorneys for the Trump administration used little more than a single sentence in its filing expressing the federal government’s desire to halt its appeal.
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Colleagues say Oregon judge who blocked Trump troop deployment is ‘well-respected’ and ‘has no fear’
The government’s reversal marks the end of a chapter, one that began on Sept. 27 when President Donald Trump announced he was sending 200 National Guard troops to Oregon’s largest city. The idea was to help guard federal properties, particularly the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland that has been the site of ongoing protests.
Legal fights over the president’s domestic military deployment also played out in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Chicago, as the president pushed the bounds of executive power in court.
Trump’s efforts ultimately withered in Portland after Immergut found the Trump administration not only violated federal law, but also the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, one that preserves the rights of the states to hold powers not explicitly given to the federal government.
This is the decision the Trump administration appealed to the 9th Circuit in November. Those judges said that before the appeal moved forward, they wanted to wait to see how a similar case from Illinois would play out at the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Several weeks later, they got their answer when the Supreme Court blocked Trump’s efforts to send troops into Chicago.
In the case over Portland, attorneys for Oregon, California and the city indicated they would be willing to sign off on a dismissal too, so long as the 9th Circuit tells Immergut to monitor and enforce the 106-page permanent injunction she issued in November.
“In light of the President’s continued threats to send troops to Portland, the courts must stay involved,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a statement. “If the Ninth Circuit chooses to dismiss the appeals, it should instruct the district court to keep monitoring and enforcing the permanent injunction in this case — to make sure that the President follows the law.”
Even after the Supreme Court ruling in Illinois, Trump has continued to express his willingness to use the military in American cities, and Portland in particular.
“We can go back,” Trump told reporters about Portland on Jan. 4, while aboard Air Force One. “We’re allowed to go back in.”
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