Field Level Media
Dec 10, 2020
N'Faly Dante had a career-high 22 points while making all 10 of his field goal attempts, helping Oregon earn an 87-66 win over Florida A&M on Wednesday night at Eugene, Ore.
Dante set the Matthew Knight Arena field-goal percentage record. He came up one shy of the Oregon record of 11-for-11 by Bryce Taylor against Southern California in the 2007 Pac-10 tournament championship game.
Oregon (3-1) was led by Chris Duarte's game-high 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field. Eugene Omoruyi added 13 points and Eric Williams Jr. had 11 points and six rebounds.
Florida A&M (0-3) had not played since Nov. 29 because of cancellations at South Florida and Nebraska due to a staff member with a positive COVID-19 test. The game with the Ducks was not scheduled until Monday.
Evins Desir led the Rattlers with 12 points and Johnny Brown had 11.
Oregon controlled the paint from the start. The Ducks built a 47-35 halftime lead by shooting 56.4 percent from the field and outscoring the Rattlers 36-18 in the paint. Oregon finished with a 62-32 margin in the latter category.
Dante and Duarte combined for 26 points on 12-of-14 shooting from the floor in the first half. Dante was 7 of 7 at that point.
The Ducks built their biggest lead of the half, 47-31, with 31 seconds left on a layup by Omoruyi.
Florida A&M closed with two baskets, including one by Brown, who led the Rattlers with seven points on 3-of-3 shooting from the field in the half.
Oregon took a 61-37 lead with 15:19 left in the game after opening the second half outscoring Florida A&M 14-2. In that stretch, Dante made two dunks and two free throws after he was fouled making a strong move to the basket.
Florida A&M responded with a 12-0 run, taking advantage of five turnovers to cut the deficit to 61-49 with 11:54 remaining.
The Rattlers would not get closer as Oregon pushed the lead 71-51 with 10:01 left after Duarte made two mid-range jumpers and Williams and Omoruyi drained 3-pointers.
--Field Level Media