Young Leads Oregon Past Oregon St. In 1st Civil War of Year

Joseph Young led Oregon past Oregon St. Saturday night, in the first battle of the Civil War this year and basketball season, and the Pac-12 opener for both the Ducks and Beavers. Young, the Pac-12's leading scorer, improved on his conference leading 19.6 points per game, with a 27 point night that led the way to a 71-59 win at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon's 20th win in the last 22 Civil War basketball battles fought in Eugene.

The game looked a lot like the Beavers' last outing against UC-Santa Barbara, in which the Beavers fell behind by 16 points, when the high-flying Ducks, still a mile high after having won the Rose Bowl 59-20 over Florida St. 2 days ago to earn a trip to the National Championship Game, roared out to a 10-0 lead, on a lob dunk by Jordan Bell, and a 16-4 lead just after the second media time out, as Oregon St. missed 11 of their first 12 shots.

The Beavers bounced back as they did against the Gauchos, catching the Ducks just before halftime, and again on the first points of the second half, a pair of Olaf Schaftenaar free throws. But while Oregon St. was able to roll on past UCSB for a 12 point win, the Beavers were never able to move ahead of the Ducks, and it was Oregon that would pull away to a 12 point win this time.

Oregon St. was still struggling along offensively, having made only 2 of 18 shots coming out of the under 8 to go first half media time out, and still down 18-7, as Oregon had been the faster team all over the floor in the early going.

Gary Payton II, having picked up his second personal foul just over 6 minutes into the game, stayed in the game, but had no impact over the ensuing 10 minutes.

But the Beavers finally broke out their offense, going on a 12-5 run, with Langston Morris-Walker, above (USA Today photo), accounting for 8 of them, to pull within 23-18.

Young, who was Oregon's answer to whatever Oregon St. did all night long, scored the rest of the Ducks' points in the half, but Payton finally found the range, pulling the Beavers within 2 points twice, before Morris-Walker finally tied it up at 27 apiece.

Young put Oregon back ahead, but Oregon St. could have had a tie at the break. Jarmal Reid missed twice at point blank range though, and the Ducks ducked out to the locker room up 29-27.

Oregon's Elgin Cook picked up his 3rd personal foul to start the second half, and as a result Schaftenaar tied the game again at 29 with the ensuing free throws, which improved the Beavers to 12 of 14 to that point at the line, but that was as close as Oregon St. got.

Young rattled of 5 straight points, and then made his 8th shot out of 10 attempts just before the first second half media timeout, and his 3rd 3 pointer, to open the Oregon lead to 41-35.

Coming out of the timeout, Young drilled another 3 pointer, and then Reid recorded his 3rd personal.

"There's one guy out there we absolutely could not lose defensively, and we lost him a ton in both halves," Oregon St. head coach Wayne Tinkle said, "and especially from three-point range in the second half. You have to make sure you know where their best players are. He hit a couple 3-pointers near the end of the shot clock that took our momentum away from us."

Jordan Bell's basket made it a double digit difference, and then the decisive sequence of the game ensued.

After Tinkle took a time out to try to stop the Duck's momentum, Payton snagged a steal, but blew the dunk, and Ahmaad Ronie's 3 pointer capped an 11-0 Oregon run for a 49-35 lead. The 14 point margin was the largest of the game to that point.

Morris-Walker and Victor Robbins, above, driving for a basket (USA Today photo), pulled Oregon St. back within 10 points before the under 12 minuets to go media time out, but coming out of that break, the Beavers turned the ball over, and the Ducks flew off on a 7-0 run that produced the largest lead of the game, 17 points, which forced Tinkle to take another time out still not quite half way through the second half.

"The game is about runs, and when Oregon State started to get their run, we stayed together," Young said. "We weren't doing that earlier in the season."

A driving Payton basket, above (USA Today photo), and back to back 3-bombs by Schaftenaar got the deficit back to single digits, and another Payton steal that led to an assist to a Morris-Walker basket pulled Oregon St. within 8 points, down just 60-52 with over 7 minutes left.

But Young answered with his 5th 3 pointer out of 6 he lofted, giving him his game high 27 points for the night, and Oregon a double digit lead again.

"Joe did a great job. He was the difference in the game, there's no doubt about it," Oregon head coach Dana Altman felt.

Reid picked up his 4th personal with 6 1/2 minutes to go, and 45 seconds later, after another Payton basket, Robbins got his 4th foul, and that took a lot of Oregon St.'s inside aggressiveness away.

The Beavers, out of gas from fighting back for so long, without an inside threat, went nearly 6 minutes without another basket from the floor, and over 4 minutes without scoring at all after a pair of Payton free throws made it a 10 point, 66-56 game with just under 5 minutes to go.

Both Morris-Walker and Robbins missed a pair of free throws, which had been an Oregon St. strong suit (they only missed 2 other times from the free throw line all night.

Meanwhile, Oregon had made 9 of 10 free throws, capped by a pair when Reid fouled out with over 4 minutes still to go, for a 12 point lead.

Dillion Brooks' basket put him in double digits, with all 10 coming in the second half, and another Cook free throw opened the largest lead of the game, as Oregon went up 15 points, before Morris-Walker's 3 pointer snapped the Oregon St. scoring drought, and produced the final score of 71-59.

Morris-Walker led the Beavers with 16 points, and Payton had 12, along with a co-team high 5 rebounds, as well as 5 assists and a pair of steals. Schaftenaar was also in double digits, with 10 points, and also had a co-team high 5 boards.

In addition to Young's game high 27, and Brooks' 10, Cook had a big night with 18 points, and just missed a double double, with a co-game high 9 rebounds.

Freshman Jordan Bell also had 9 boards for Oregon, and 8 points, and a game high 5 blocks, increasing his total to 48 in just 14 games.

Oregon shot 49% from the floor for the game, while Oregon St. only battled back from their terrible start to 35%, making just 19 out of 54 shots.

"The thing we're disappointed about was we lacked a little focus and fire at the start," Tinkle said. "We did a great job of battling and showing some character to get back in it but in the second half we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot with defensive mistakes."

Neither team lit it up from long distance, with Oregon St. making only 4 of 15 3 pointers, and Oregon was only 1 of 7 outside of Young's 5 of 6.

The Ducks out-boarded the Beavers 35 to 29, with the late foul trouble a factor in the final line.

Both teams took care of business at the free throw line, except for that 4 consecutive miss stretch by the Beavers late, as Oregon was 19 of 24, whole Oregon St. went 17 of 23 at the stripe.

Oregon improved to 11-3, and 1-0 in the Pac-12, with their 3rd win in a row over Oregon St. and will host Arizona Thursday night.

Going head to head with the NFL playoffs, and the cost of attendance at both the Rose Bowl and National Championship game for Duck fans, cut well into the attendance, with only 7,314 on hand.

Oregon St. dropped to 9-4 for the season, and is off to an 0-1 start in conference, and will host Arizona St. Thursday night at 6 PM back at Gill Coliseum.

The Sun Devils and Wildcats square off tomorrow in the first fight for the Territorial Cup of the basketball season.

Beaver fans did get some good news tonight, as the 13th ranked Oregon St. women's basketball team, off to their best start ever, improved to 11-1, after taking a 65-47 win at UCLA in their Pac-12 opener, at the same time as the men were playing.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com