Field Level Media
Feb 10, 2019
Oregon's defense suffocated Stanford into three long droughts Sunday night, allowing the Ducks to take an early lead and extend it gradually into a 69-46 victory over the Cardinal in Pacific-12 Conference men's basketball play in Eugene, Ore.
Payton Pritchard had a game-high 20 points and Kenny Wooten spearheaded the Oregon defense with seven blocks as the Ducks (15-9, 6-5 Pac-12) won for the fourth time in their last five games.
Bryce Wills had a team-high 13 points for the Cardinal (12-11, 5-6), which was coming off an impressive 83-60 win at Oregon State on Thursday night.
The Ducks opened the game with 6-0 and 16-2 leads, first holding the Cardinal scoreless for the initial 7:02 and limiting the visitors to just one field goal in the first 13:35.
Down 30-20 at halftime, Stanford inched within 38-31 on a 3-pointer by KZ Okpala with still 15:21 to play.
But again the Oregon defense took control, limiting Stanford to just one field goal over the next 11:36 while the Ducks ran off to a 62-41 lead.
The 46 total points equaled the season-low for the Cardinal, which was held to 46 in a nonconference game against Wisconsin in November.
The defensive effort was the best of the season for Oregon, whose previous best had been allowing 47 to Eastern Washington in a nonconference game in November.
In seeing its three-game winning streak end, Stanford shot just 27.3 percent for the game and 3-for-18 (16.7 percent) on 3-pointers.
Pritchard hit eight of his 13 shots, including a pair of 3-pointers.
Louis King added 16 points and Victor Bailey Jr. 11 for Oregon, which won its third straight at home.
The Ducks outrebounded the Cardinal 42-37, with King leading the way for Oregon with seven.
Stanford's Josh Sharma was the game's leading rebounder with 10 to go with eight points.
Wills made five of his 10 shots for Stanford, but the rest of the Cardinal starting lineup went a combined 6-for-29.
Okpala finished with 10 points, but shot just 3-for-14.
The loss was the third straight for Stanford at Oregon. The Cardinal haven't recorded a road win over the Ducks since January 2014.
--Field Level Media