University of Oregon
1-0
Jackson State
0-1
Dorsey, Ducks Overpower Tigers in Season Opener
11/14/15 | Men's Basketball
EUGENE – The Oregon men's basketball team opened the 2015-16 season on the right note, downing Jackson State, 80-52, behind a strong debut from freshman Tyler Dorsey at Matthew Knight Arena Friday night.
How It Happened: After the Tigers cut the Oregon lead to 11-8 at the 15:31 mark of the first half, Oregon rattled off a nearly five-minute, 14-3 run to separate the teams for good.
The Ducks opened the game hot from three-point range, led by freshman Tyler Dorsey who converted the first four three-point attempts of his career to notch 14 of his 20 points in the first 10 minutes of the game. Dorsey, Chris Boucher and Dwayne Benjamin each drained triples in the first half to head into the break shooting 7-of-12 (58 percent) from three.
Much of the Ducks' success filling up the basket in the first half was attributed to sharing the ball. Five different Ducks combined to dish off 11 assists in the first half, resulting in 15 made field goals. The Ducks finished with 16 assists in the game.
Oregon opened the second half on a 16-3 run and never looked back, finishing off the Tigers for the 80-52 win.
Who Stood Out: Dorsey was electric in his first game as a Duck, finishing with 20 points on an efficient 5-of-6 clip from the field and 4-of-5 mark from deep. The freshman did it all, contributing five rebounds and dishing off five helpers as well. Boucher finished with 10 points in his debut while gathering five rebounds and rejecting five Jackson State shots. Benjamin poured in 16 points off the bench with three triples. Elgin Cook was the fourth Duck to score in double figures with 11.
What It Means: The Ducks led wire to wire, and got some key contributions from newcomers Tyler Dorsey and Chris Boucher, while senior Dwayne Benjamin proved himself a force off the bench. Most importantly, though, the Ducks took care of business Friday night, simply outmanning Jackson State to enter Monday night's big matchup with 22nd-ranked Baylor at 1-0.
Notes and Numbers: Oregon has now won 17 consecutive home openers ... Tyler Dorsey and Chris Boucher wasted no time getting on the scoreboard, each hitting three-point shots for their first buckets as Ducks to put Oregon out to an early 6-2 lead ... Boucher picked up where he left off in the two exhibition games, rejecting five JSU shots ... The last time a Duck had five or more blocks was Jordan Bell with eight against Arizona State (1-10-2015) ... Dillion Brooks, a big reason for the early second-half surge, scored all nine of his points in the final frame.
Quotable:
Dana Altman, UO Coach
On the team's offense...
“The first half, I really thought our ball movement was pretty good. But, we did have eight turnovers each half, bad turnovers. We had guys pushing the envelope too much, so that is something we need to work on. The ball movement in the first half was good. We had 11 or 12 assists the first half, which is pretty good. The second half wasn't really as good.”
On what the team needs to do to improve...
“We can't turn the ball over 16 times. That is a concern. They changed defenses on us a little bit, and we had some bad turnovers. Defensively, we are going to have to get better. We are just going to have to improve with the squad that we have. I think we can be real active defensively and have a good defensive team, but we do need to improve and we need to have five guys out there all the time on the same page.”
Up Next: The Ducks look ahead to a showdown with No. 22 Baylor on Monday night at 8:30 p.m. at Matthew Knight Arena.
