Your Oregon Ducks returned home to play host to the Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday afternoon, looking to win their first game since early January. It was a back-and-forth battle for most of the first half, with PSU maintaining a modest lead for most of the first 12 minutes of the contest. But then, for seemingly the first time in months, the Ducks started to find a rhythm from beyond the arc. Oregon would make six 3’s in the last 12 minutes of the half, propelling them ahead of the Nittany Lions, and giving the Ducks a 38-32 lead at the break.
The second half would, even more surprising still, be essentially more of the same with Oregon knocking down three of their first four attempts from deep to open the half and allowing their defense to get into a rhythm of its own. PSU would cut the lead down to just three about four minutes into the half, but that would be the closest they would get. Oregon’s surprisingly hot shooting would open up the rest of the offense and allow them to build their lead up to 15 with 4 minutes remaining in the game, eventually hanging on to win the game 83-72.
Man, winning feels good, doesn’t it? Such a solid game all around by the Ducks, with Takai Simpkins (22 points, 5 rebounds) and Nate Bittle (22 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists) leading the way. But even more impressively, every Duck that checked in had a positive +/- (the number indicates how the team performs when a player is in the game, positive number is how many points the team outscored the opponent, negative number is how much the team was outscored by said opponent) in the box score. Also, special shout out to Dezdrick Lindsay for finally looking like himself again today, knocking down 4 threes on his way to a 16 point, 5 assist performance. I’ve been waiting a while for this kind of game from him, because I knew he was capable of it.
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I won’t lie to y’all and say that “we’re back” or anything. But it was nice to see the guys come out and take a game that everyone knew we could win. Three-point shooting will be the biggest key for this team the rest of the way, and if they can replicate the success they had today from behind the line (52% from 3), this team might not be as easy of an out in the Big Ten Tournament as they might seem.
As always, ‘Sco Ducks
