Cold Shooting Night Dooms Ducks

Saturday, January 21

Stanford, CA

8:00 PM

University of Oregon

11-9,5-4Pac-12

Stanford

7-12,2-7Pac-12

Oregon

Stanford

Photo by: GoDucks.com

01/21/23 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Stanford was blistering hot in the first half and the Ducks never really got going in a loss Saturday to the Cardinal.

By: Rob Moseley

STANFORD, Calif. — Two straight encouraging performances were followed by a disappointing result Saturday for the Oregon men's basketball team, which lost 71-64 at Stanford.

Coming off a win at home over Arizona followed by a blowout at Cal, the Ducks shot 37.9 percent Saturday as the Cardinal earned just its second win in Pac-12 play this season. Oregon led for less than a minute of action and trailed by as much as 17 in the second half before a late surge.

Jermaine Couisnard had 18 points to lead the Ducks, Rivaldo Soares added 13 and Keeshawn Barthelemy scored 11. It was a tough night for veterans Will Richardson and N'Faly Dante, who combined for 14 points on 6-of-15 shooting.

"I complimented the guys on how hard they played the last two games. and we just didn't have that same kind of effort, that same kind of focus," UO coach Dana Altman said. "At times we played hard, but at other times our energy just wasn't there. It's disappointing, because we were playing for so much."

The Ducks fell to 11-9 overall and 5-4 in Pac-12 play, missing out on a chance to stick with a big group of Pac-12 games bunched two losses behind first-place UCLA.

How It Happened: Stanford shot a blistering 66.7 percent in the first half, including 7-of-12 from three-point range. After Richardson hit a three to open the game, the Cardinal used a 7-0 run to take the lead for good. Stanford later used a pair of 5-0 runs to go up 12-6 and then 20-11.

The Ducks closed the gap, and a dunk by Dante followed by a three-pointer from Couisnard got them within 32-31. But Stanford hit a pair of threes to take a 40-33 lead, and the Cardinal was up 42-37 at halftime.

The Ducks needed a stretch of made baskets and defensive stops to get back into the game, but it wasn't to be. Oregon's best stretch of the second half was a 4-of-6 shooting span, but the Cardinal kept answering at the other end and led 57-46 with 12:36 to play.

From that point Stanford went the next 9:19 with just a single field goal. But Oregon couldn't get the deficit even to single digits as the Ducks also went cold offensively. Down 68-51 late, the Ducks got a pair of threes from Soares and another from Couisnard in the final two minutes to make the final more respectable.

Notable: Dante's 15 rebounds matched the career high he set Dec. 20 against Utah Valley. … The Ducks were 10-of-14 from the free-throw line, but two of the misses were front ends of 1-and-1 situations by Dante and Barthelemy during Stanford's extended second-half cold stretch. … The two teams' disparate shooting performances were reflected in their stats on the offensive glass — Oregon had 11 offensive rebounds that turned into just eight second-chance points, while Stanford had just six offensive rebounds but turned them into 10 second-chance points.

Up Next: The Ducks return home to host Colorado on Thursday (6 p.m., Pac-12 Network).