Win streak grows for Oregon Ducks men’s basketball: How it happened

The Oregon men’s basketball team rolled to a second straight rout Tuesday night.

And much like their romp against UTEP over the weekend, the Ducks needed a dominant second half to pull away.

Kario Oquendo and Jackson Shelstad each scored a season-high and the Ducks outrebounded one of the top rebounding teams in the country as they pushed their winning streak to three games with a 76-55 victory against California Baptist in front of 4,582 at Matthew Knight Arena.

Oquendo came off the bench to score 19 on 7-of-12 shooting, with 11 of his points coming in the second half.

Shelstad scored 17 on 8-of-14 shooting and also had a career-high eight assists. He had 11 points in the first half, including the first seven of the game for the Ducks.

‘We just started playing harder’

Oregon (7-3) led for all but 1 minute, 5 seconds of the first half and never trailed as it went into halftime up 36-31. But the Ducks also never held more than a seven-point advantage as the Lancers often stayed within a shot or two of the lead. 

That changed quickly in the second half, as Oregon outscored Cal Baptist 40-24 and went up by double-digits for good when Jermaine Couisnard put the Ducks up 46-36 with 13:40 to play.

It was similar to Oregon’s 71-49 win on Saturday when it outscored the Miners 43-24 in the second half.

“I mean, I feel like we’ve been having that recipe where we come out and we feel a team out and then in the second half, we usually come out and blow the game open,” Oquendo said. ”But I feel like we’ve got to be better in the first half, too. I think the adjustment we made is we just started playing harder. We turned the defense up.”

Brennan Rigsby also scored 11 for the Ducks on 4-of-5 shooting with three 3-pointers. Jadrian Tracey had 10 points and five rebounds, and Couisnard had six points and eight rebounds.

Overall, the Ducks shot 51.9% from the field (27-for-52) and 50% from 3-point range (9-for-18) as they finished with the most points allowed by the Lancers (6-3) this season.

Oregon also outrebounded Cal Baptist 34-33, a victory in itself as the Lancers were ranked 32nd in the nation with a plus-8 rebounding margin on the season.

Ducks continue to find success without injured starters

The Ducks’ success continues to come without three injured starters — centers N’Faly Dante and Nate Bittle, and guard Jesse Zarzuela. 

“I mean, obviously we’ve just got to work with what we got,” Shelstad said. “We’d love to have them out there because it changes a lot of the game but I think we’re doing a good job. It’s adjusting and playing more of a faster style defensively, just being more aggressive.”

That seemed to work against Cal Baptist, which was held to a season-low in scoring while shooting 35.2% from the field (19-for-54), including 20% from 3-point range (3-for-15).

“I think our guys are starting to get a feel for who we have to be to have a chance,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “We gotta outrebound people, we gotta get on the floor, we’re gonna have to play really hard, we’re gonna have to trap some and rotate hard out of the traps. I think that’s the only way this team can have a shot.”

Up next: Oregon set to take on Syracuse

Oregon takes on Syracuse (7-3) at 10 a.m. Sunday in a game being played in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at the Sanford Pentagon. It will be the penultimate game of the nonconference season for the Ducks, who are back at Matthew Knight Arena on Dec. 21 for a game against Kent State before heading into their first weekend of Pac-12 play against Southern California (Dec. 28) and UCLA (Dec. 30).

“The schedule gets tougher from here,” Altman said. “We’re gonna have to do a much better job and be a lot more efficient with the ball and a little bit better organization defensively.” 

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com. For more sports coverage, visit registerguard.com. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.