Surging Oregon dominate UW Huskies men in 84-56 win

EUGENE, Ore. – On the first play, Terrell Brown Jr. intercepted a pass and after another defensive stop, the Washington men’s basketball team collected an offensive rebound for a putback and early 2-0 lead.

And that encapsulates the Husky highlights on a miserable Sunday night in which they were beaten in almost every way possible by Oregon during an 84-56 loss at Matthew Knight Arena.

In its second game without coach Mike Hopkins, who is in COVID-19 protocols, nothing went right for UW.

Cole Bajema and Brown mistakenly stepped out of bounds without any prompting for two of Washington’s season-high 23 turnovers.

Jackson Grant hurried a three-pointer that missed everything and landed along the baseline, which was one of the Huskies’ errant perimeter shots in a game in which they missed 12 of 13 from long range.

And that vaunted UW defense that allowed an average of 63.7 points during its recent three-game winning streak didn’t hold up against an Oregon onslaught that scored at will.

The Ducks connected on 9 of their first 13 three-pointers and shot 54.2% from the field.

Washington outscored Oregon 43-36 in the second half, but for practical purposes, this game was decided in the opening minutes.

Before the first media timeout, UW committed two turnovers and missed 5 of 6 field-goal attempts while trailing 8-2.

After Oregon center Frank Kepnang hammered a dunk for a 17-6 Ducks lead, acting Huskies head coach Will Conroy called a timeout in an attempt to break UO’s momentum. At that point, UW missed 9 of 11 shots and was 0 for 5 on three-pointers.

Conroy rotated a slew of players. The Huskies pressed full court and tried trapping the Ducks on the corners and sidelines. But nothing worked early on.

Washington went 8:22 between field goals while Oregon used a 27-4 run to stretch a 13-6 lead to 40-10 with 4:15 left in the first half.

And the Ducks continued their dominance and took a 48-13 lead at halftime.

Oregon led by 38 points (59-21) with 16:13 remaining when Washington began to find a modicum of offensive success with a lineup that included backup center Riley Sorn.

Still, the Huskies never got closer than 24 points the rest of way while dropping their sixth straight game against the Ducks.

Brown finished with 14 points – seven fewer than his Pac-12-leading scoring average – on 3-for-16 field-goal shooting and had six turnovers. Emmitt Matthews Jr. tallied 12 points and Nate Roberts collected eight rebounds for Washington, which fell to 9-8 overall and 4-3 in the Pac-12.

Oregon (12-6, 5-2) won its sixth straight game and received a game-high 21 points from Will Richardson while Jacob Young and Quincy Guerrier each had 12.