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. 

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.

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. 

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.