Portland, OR - The second day of an interesting basketball weekend in Portland at the Moda Center featured the Oregon Ducks men's and women's teams.
The No. 25 ranked women opened play with an easy 90-46 win over Portland State. 6-4 frosh Ruthy Hebard gave her best Jillian Alleyne impression as she led the Ducks with 28 points and 17 rebounds in 28 minutes of play. Oregon (9-2) outscored Portland State (4-4) 42-12 in the second and third quarters. Aussie Megan Trinder was put in the starting lineup in place of injured Sabrina Ionescu and contributed eight assists in 21 minutes. Others in double-figures for Oregon were Lexi Bando (15), Justine Hall (12) and Mallory McGwire (10). Up next for Oregon is a Tuesday matinee at home against Idaho.
In the nightcap, before a solid crowd of more than 9,000 No. 22 Oregon had no problem putting away a rebuilding UNLV Runnin' Rebel team by a score of 83-63. Oregon played without their leading scorer, 6-10 Chris Boucher who was nursing an injured ankle. 6-9 Jordan Bell picked up the slack inside with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Dillon Brooks led the Ducks with 20 points and Tyler Dorsey added 18.
Throughout much of the season Oregon's offense has not looked cohesive. Much of that is due to the graduation of Elgin Cook and Brooks' foot injury. Brooks has been working his way back after missing the first three games of the season. He's had a few good games but seems to be playing too fast some of the time. Tonight Brooks looked much better in the second half than in the first, as did Oregon. The Ducks took only a 37-33 lead into the break shooting only 2-of-9 on 3's and committing eight turnovers.
Brooks played much better in the second half as did Oregon. After scoring only four first half points on 1-of-5 shooting, Brooks looked like more of his old self in the second half. He scored 16 points on 7-of-9 from the field and added three assists. Oregon outscored UNLV by 16 points in the half helped by Brooks and Dorsey, who added nine second half points.
Even without Boucher Oregon dominated the boards and had a +16 rebounding advantage. A lot of that was due to solid defense as UNLV was held to 32 percent shooting and missed 37 shots while the Ducks shot at a 53 percent clip for the game and 61 percent in the second half. Dylan Ennis continued his solid board work from the guard spot grabbing six rebounds and also led the team with five assists.
Oregon plays their last non-conference game on their schedule at home on Tuesday night against Fresno State. Then they'll have eight days to get ready for the visit of undefeated and No. 2 rated UCLA.
Carl Berman is Managing Partner of NetScouts Basketball.