Portland St. @ Oregon preview

Portland St. at Oregon

Last Meeting ( Nov 30, 2014 ) Portland St. 59, Oregon 81

The early-season schedule has mainly been manageable for 2017 national semifinalist Oregon, but things are ramping up the rest of the week. Up next for the Ducks are a pair of 8-2 teams ranked in the top 66 of the NCAA RPI, beginning with Wednesday night’s home game against in-state rival Portland State.

Wednesday’s game is the third of four contests in a nine-day span for Oregon, which is coming off a tougher-than-expected 74-68 home victory Monday over winless Texas Southern. The Tigers trailed only 32-31 at the half, and then after the Ducks extended their lead to 48-33, the visitors again closed to within a point (65-64) with 3 ½ minutes left before Oregon finally managed to pull away. The Ducks made only eight of 25 from 3-point range and had 12 turnovers with just 15 assists. “We (almost lost) a 15-point lead, so we have to be better than that - we can’t give that up,” sophomore point guard Payton Pritchard, Oregon’s lone returning starter from last season, said in the post-game news conference. “We just have to move on to our next game now. It’s a quick turnaround. ... and we have to focus on Portland State.”

TV: 10 p.m. ET, Pac-12 Network

ABOUT PORTLAND STATE (8-2): Unlike their major-conference opponent, the Big Sky Conference Vikings have spent most of the last five weeks on the road, and Wednesday’s game will mark the end of a stretch of six in a row away from home against Division I opponents. Buoyed by its frenetic style and pressure defense, Portland State is riding a four-game win streak - which began with an 87-78 victory over the Pac-12’s Stanford on Nov. 26 - and ranks seventh nationally with an average of 91.1 points per outing and second with 22.8 turnovers forced. Guards Deontae North (19.2 points) and Bryce Canda (16.4) are the leading scorers while the 6-4 Canda is the top rebounder (6.9) and freshman guard Holland Woods is averaging a team-best 5.1 assists.

ABOUT OREGON (7-3): Pritchard finished with a team-high 16 points while dishing out four assists against Texas Southern and is averaging a team-best 15.8 points and 4.4 assists on the season. Freshman forward Troy Brown missed the Ducks’ Dec. 1 loss to Boise State, which snapped the Ducks’ national-leading 46-game home win streak, but has posted double-doubles in the two contests he’s played since and is averaging 11.6 points and a team-best 8.0 rebounds. Guard Elijah Brown (12.3 points) and forward Paul White (11.7) also have double-digit averages for Oregon, which is shooting 47.3 percent from the field as a team while scoring 85.0 points.

TIP-INS

1. Oregon leads the series 11-2 and has won five straight with the most recent victory an 81-59 decision on Nov. 30, 2014.

2. Ducks F Kenny Wooten, a 6-9 freshman, is tied for 23rd nationally with 2.6 blocked shots per game and has scored 13 points in each of the last two contests.

3. Still expected to be without injured big men C Traylin Farris and F Brendan Rumel, Portland State owns a minus-1.8 average rebound margin which compares less than favorably to Oregon’s plus-7.7 average advantage on the glass.

PREDICTION: Oregon 91, Portland State 81