Game Notes: Oregon Heads To Baylor

The Ducks make their second trip to the state of Texas this month to face Baylor in Waco on Friday (4 p.m., PT, ESPN2). Baylor will return the game to Eugene next season. This is the second time Oregon and Baylor have scheduled a home-and-home series. Each team won on its home court the last time in 2015-16 (Oregon) and 2016-17 (Baylor). Payton Pritchard is the only Duck who has faced the Bears. He had three points and three assists in the last meeting.

THE STARTING 5
• 1 – Oregon continues to lead the Pac-12 and ranks fourth nationally in field goal percentage defense at 36.8 percent.
• 2 – The Ducks also lead the Pac-12 and rank seventh nationally in free throw percentage at 76.4 percent. Oregon has hit 70 percent or better from the line in nine-of-11 games this season.
• 3 – Under Dana Altman, Oregon is 148-16 when holding opponents under 70 points, including a 114-8 mark the last six seasons.
• 4 – The Ducks are 7-1 this season when outrebounding the opposition.
• 5 – Bolstered by a season-high 11 steals, Oregon used a strong defensive effort to rally from a nine-point deficit and defeat San Diego 65-55 on Dec. 12. Ehab Amin led the Ducks with four steals, while Will Richardson added three; both were season highs. Bol Bol contributed four blocks to the defensive effort, while the Ducks out-rebounded the Toreros, 35-31.
• BENCH – Oregon and Baylor have one common opponent this season: Texas Southern, The Tigers defeated the Bears 72-69 on Nov. 6, while the Ducks fell to the Tigers 89-84 on Nov. 26 .

DUCKS OVERCOME SHORT BENCH TO DOWN FAMU
Oregon overcame a short bench to defeat Florida A&M Tuesday afternoon at Matthew Knight Arena. With Bol Bol (foot) and Abu Kigab (ankle) sidelined, and Kenny Wooten limited due to illness, Victor Bailey Jr. made the most of his first career start and matched his season high with 16 points to help the Ducks get by the Rattlers 71-64. Paul White contributed 13 points, while Payton Pritchard had 10 points, four assists and four steals.

WOOTEN BREAKS OUT OF SCORING SLUMP AS BLOCKS CONTINUE
Kenny Wooten snapped out of a mini scoring drought with a career-high 20 points Dec. 8 versus Nebraska-Omaha. He had reached double figures just once this season prior to the game with the Mavericks. With 107 career blocks, Wooten ranks fourth on the UO career chart. He is nine blocks behind Blair Rasmussen (116/1981-85) for third. Wooten's 92 blocks as a freshman ranked third on the UO single-season list, and third on the Pac-12 freshman list.

PRITCHARD CLOSING IN ON JONES; EYES 1,000 CAREER POINTS
Payton Pritchard entered his junior year on pace to break Kenya Wilkins' UO career assists record of 614 and he's also increased his scoring to approach 1,000 career points. Pritchard moved past former NBA all-star Terrell Brandon (315/1989-91) for eighth against Eastern Washington and now shows 363 career assists. He needs four more assists to catch Fred Jones (1998-02), who is seventh with 367 assists. He also has 954 career points coming into the Baylor game.

VJ PROVIDES A SPARK OFF THE BENCH
Victor Bailey Jr., who ranks seventh in the Pac-12 in three-point field goal percentage (.444), has provided a spark of the bench of late with four double-figure scoring efforts in his last six games. He had just one double-figure game in Oregon's first five contests. Bailey Jr. is also shooting .952 from the free throw line (20-of-21).

RICHARDSON RISES
Freshman Will Richardson recently set a season high in scoring in four consecutive games. He had seven points against Syracuse, 10 against Green Bay, 13 versus Texas Southern and 16 at Houston. On the year, he's shooting 56 percent from the field, 70 percent at the free throw line and also dishing out 2.3 assists per game.

KING LOUIE DEBUT
Freshman Louis King made his Oregon debut Dec. 8 against Omaha and made efficient use of his minutes. He scored 11 points on four-of-six shooting from the field (three-of-four 3FG) in 16 minutes.

NORRIS SEES FIRST VARSITY ACTION
Freshman Miles Norris made his varsity debut Dec. 15 against Boise State. His mother Christina (Metzger) Norris played on Oregon's women's team from 1982-84