Ducks open Bay Area road trip with a win
The Ducks did exactly what they had to do in the opening game of a crucial road trip to the Bay Area.
Led by a career night from Jadrian Tracey and a superb shooting performance from 3-point range, Oregon cruised past Stanford Thursday night, winning 78-65 in a Pac-12 men’s basketball game at Maples Pavilion.
The win kept the Ducks (18-8, 10-5) one game in front of idle UCLA for third place in the conference standings, and one game behind second place Arizona with five games to play in the regular season.
Oregon, which beat Oregon State in Corvallis last Saturday, has now won consecutive games for the first time since mid-January when the Ducks opened the Pac-12 season 5-0.
It was also Oregon’s first win in Maples Pavilion since the 2020-21 season.
Impressive individual performances lead Oregon
Tracey scored a career-high 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting with four 3pointers and five rebounds.
Freshman point guard Jackson Shelstad had his best game in three weeks with 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting, three 3-pointers five rebounds, seven assists and just one turnovers.
Center N’Faly Dante also had his fifth double-double in what was his 12th game of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Overall, the Ducks shot 50% from the field (31-of-62) and 48% from the 3point line (12-for-25).
It was their most 3-pointers in the last five games — since also making 12 against Southern California on Feb. 1.
It followed back-to-back games when they made just 6-of-37 3-point attempts, including a 2-for-19 performance against the Beavers.
The Ducks also had 38 rebounds to 31 for the Cardinal (12-14, 7-9) to improve to improve to 12-1 this season when outrebounding their opponents.
First-half 3-pointers put Ducks in lead
Tracey was hot from the start as he scored 16 in the first half on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, including 4-of-5 from the 3-point line.
Following Tracey’s lead, the Ducks were 7-of-16 from deep in the first half.
Oregon trailed 12-7 at the 14:26 mark when Tracey sparked a 10-0 run with back-to-back 3-pointers.
The Ducks grabbed the lead for good with back-to-back dunks by Dante midway through half and 3-pointers in the final minutes by Tracey and Kario Oquendo gave Oregon a 40-32 lead at halftime — its largest advantage of the first half.
That lead grew to a high of 17 in the second half on a couple of occasions as Oregon led by double digits for nearly all of the final 20 minutes.
Defense also shows up for Oregon
The Ducks held the Cardinal to 12 points below their scoring average and pestered them into a poor shooting night from deep.
Stanford, which was making 42% from 3-point range during Pac-12 play, shot 29.6% against Oregon as it made 8-of-27 attempts.
Forward Brandon Angel led the Cardinal with 21 points. Center Maxime Raynaud, who was averaging 15.1 points and 10.04 rebounds, was held to six points and seven rebounds.
What’s next for Oregon
The Ducks are in Berkeley Saturday for a 4 p.m. game against California (12-15, 8-8) at Haas Pavilion (Pac-12 Networks). The Golden Bears beat Oregon State 81-73 Thursday. Oregon defeated California 80-73 on Jan. 13 at Matthew Knight Arena.
Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com . For more sports coverage, visit registerguard.com. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.