Arizona State @ Oregon preview
Matthew Knight Arena
Last Meeting ( Mar 15, 2019 ) Oregon 79, Arizona State 75
Oregon outdueled Arizona in overtime Thursday night to win a top-25 conference showdown. Now the ninth-ranked Ducks look to complete the homestand sweep Saturday night when they host Arizona State.
Senior point guard Payton Pritchard provided his usual heroics (18 points, seven rebounds, six assists), including the overtime-forcing jumper late in regulation. But it was sophomore backcourt mate Will Richardson who took over from there, scoring seven of the Ducks’ eight points in overtime to finish with a career-high 21 in the 74-73 triumph. “You just try and grind it out and find a way to win,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said of his program’s record fourth straight victory over the Wildcats. “We did make a lot of mistakes, but to (our) credit, we did stay with it and kept battling.” Arizona State, meanwhile, did the same Thursday across the state in Corvallis as it repelled a late Oregon State surge to notch a 82-76 road victory.
TIME: 10:30 p.m. ET. TV: Pac-12 Network
ABOUT ARIZONA STATE (10-5, 1-1 Pac-12): The Sun Devils were determined to bounce back from a Pac-12-opening 75-47 blowout loss to Arizona, and that they did, thanks largely to a game-high 24 points from leading scorer Remy Martin (18.5 per contest on the season). But ASU also received an unexpected boost from guard Rob Edwards’ 18 points, including a 4-of-5 performance from 3-point range, as he came off the bench for the first time this season. Aside from Martin, guard Alonzo Verge Jr. (13.9 points) and forward Romello White (10.8, team-best 9.6 rebounds) also are averaging double figures for the Sun Devils, who despite outrebounding the Beavers 38-31, still own the conference’s worst rebound margin at minus-2.4.
ABOUT OREGON (13-3, 2-1): The Ducks continue to display a deep bench with their reserves outscoring Arizona’s 32-14 on Thursday night. Richardson (11.1 points on the season) and 6-11 center N’Faly Dante (7.5) accounted for all but one of those 32 points, and they join Pritchard (18.6) and fellow guards Chris Duarte (12.6) and Anthony Mathis (9.4) as the team’s top scorers. Led by Mathis (38) and Pritchard (34), four Oregon players have connected on at least 20 3-pointers this season as the Ducks pace the Pac-12 and rank 10th nationally with a 39.2-percent accuracy rate from long range.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Oregon has dominated the series of late, winning 13 of the last 15 meetings, including a 79-75 overtime victory in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals last March.
2. The Ducks have won 14 straight home games, including all nine this season, but Arizona State has proven tough on the road, winning three of its four true road contests.
3. Shooting has been an overall struggle for the Sun Devils this season as they rank 11th in the conference in field-goal percentage (42.9), 3-point accuracy (30.3) and free-throw percentage (67.2).
PREDICTION: Oregon 78, Arizona State 68