Oregon pulls away down the stretch, tops Washington State 74-60 in Pac-12 opener

One of the hottest 3-point shooting teams in the country, Washington State went cold from beyond the arc while Oregon controlled the paint to blow open a tight game.

Coming off two of their best passing performances in years, the Cougars struggled with turnovers while the Ducks pulled away.

Oregon surged in the final seven minutes of a 74-60 win over the Cougars on Thursday night in the Pac-12 opener for both teams at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon.

The Ducks (4-4, 1-0 Pac-12), one of the nation’s tallest teams, tallied 52 points in the paint, outmatching WSU’s short-handed and inexperienced frontcourt.

The Cougars (3-3, 0-1) shot 3-for-14 from 3-point range. They came into the game ranked in the top 10 nationally in 3-point percentage and made 3s. WSU hit 34 of 59 from distance over its past two games, but the Cougars were without their top outside shooter against Oregon. Guard Jabe Mullins missed Saturday’s game with a knee injury after making 14 of 19 attempts from 3-point range in the last two games.

“One way to offset it is to make sure we don’t turn it over,” WSU coach Kyle Smith said of his team’s 3-point shooting. “That was the disappointing part. … (Hitting 3s) is a little bit too much of an emphasis for us. We gotta find a way to take care of the ball and rebound to give ourselves a chance.”

WSU recorded 40 assists against 17 turnovers over its past two games, but managed five assists against 17 giveaways versus the Ducks, who used backcourt pressure to disrupt the Cougars’ flow. WSU coughed up possession 11 times in the second half.

“(Oregon’s) game plan worked,” Smith said. “It sped us up. We threw it away, threw it to them a couple of times. We hung our heads. You hang your head on the road, you’re going to go from a two-point game to a nine-point game quickly.”

Despite its shooting slump and size disadvantage underneath, WSU matched up well for most of the game, which was tied at halftime. The teams traded the lead 13 times – the first seven minutes of the second half featured nine lead changes.

The Ducks began to separate midway through the second half, feeding the ball to their big men and capitalizing on WSU giveaways. The Cougars turned the ball over five times during a game-changing, 8-0 Oregon scoring run that spanned about three minutes. The Ducks built their first double-digit lead with 6:51 remaining, then coasted to the finish.

“I was generally pleased with the first 26, 27 minutes,” Smith said, “but on the road, you just can’t turn the ball over and we kinda broke when that happened.”

Oregon post N’Faly Dante led all players with 22 points (11 of 16) and seven rebounds. Veteran guard Will Richardson presented matchup issues for the Cougars’ rookies in the backcourt. Richardson rang up 17 points and eight assists.

Sophomore post Mouhamed Gueye paced the Cougars with 19 points on 8 of 12 from the floor. He scored 17 points in the first half, maneuvering through traffic inside for impressive finishes at the rim. But he went 1-for-5 from the field and committed five turnovers after halftime. Gueye dealt with foul trouble in the second half, and young WSU forwards Adrame Diongue and Carlos Rosario couldn’t contain Oregon’s scorers in the post.

“It was more our inefficiencies, and the pressure got to us,” Smith said of Gueye’s second half. “Obviously, (Oregon) made a concerted effort to make it hard on him.

“We had some freshmen in roles, coming in off the bench in their first Pac-12 game, they probably weren’t ready for that,” Smith added.

WSU guard TJ Bamba scored 10 of his 14 points in the second half, finishing 5 of 13 from the field. Guard Justin Powell contributed nine points (4 of 10). The Cougars shot 25 of 53 (47.2%) as a team. Oregon went 3-for-18 from 3-point land, but shot 29 of 44 inside the arc and logged 16 assists against 11 turnovers.

Smith didn’t provide a concrete update on Mullins’ status, but indicated that the injury is not serious. Veteran WSU forward Andrej Jakimovski was sidelined for the sixth consecutive game to start the year.

“It’d be nice to have a full roster, but that’s not how this works,” Smith said. “We gotta keep getting tougher and grow up quickly.”

Oregon State 66, Washington 65: The Huskies were unable to erase an 18-point deficit during a narrow defeat in Corvallis, Oregon, that snapped their three-game winning streak.

Washington (6-2, 0-1) was without senior point guard Noah Williams and big men Braxton Meah and Franck Kepnang, who was injured in the second half.

The Beavers (4-4, 1-0) used a 21-0 run in the first half to take control of the game.

Washington’s Keion Brooks, who scored 21 points and had seven rebounds, missed a 3-pointer at the end of the game.