It's a good thing Oregon Ducks men's basketball coach Tony Stubblefield is already bald. Because if he wasn't, this team would certainly cause him to lose some hair.
This Ducks team has the ability to look so good in one moment and then, in the next moment, look like they've never played basketball in their lives. Fortunately, in the season opener against Montana, the good outweighed the bad as Oregon took an 87-69 victory over the Grizzlies inside Matthew Knight Arena.
Tyrone Riley IV led the Ducks with 17 points. He was one of five Oregon players to score in double digits. Andrew Meadow and Malique Ewin each added 14, with Wei Lin scoring 10. Oregon proved its offense will be tough to handle with as many scorers as it does; the Ducks had 10 different
players score, and by the looks of it, that shouldn't be a rare occurrence.
Oregon built up a big lead early in the second half. But then Montana went on a 19-4 scoring run to tie the game at 57. After that moment, it was all Ducks. They turned up the defensive pressure. Montana scored just 12 points in the last 11 minutes of the game.
When it comes to shooting three-pointers, Montana isn't exactly shy. For a while in the first half, it looked like the Grizzlies were going to shoot themselves into a victory over the Ducks. They hit their first four three-pointers of the game to take a quick 12-4 lead.
But then those three-pointers stopped falling, making just one of their next eight shots from long range, and Oregon used its dominant inside presence to eventually take the lead. In the first half alone, Oregon outscored Montana 24-4 in the paint to take 40-31 halftime advantage.
Oregon's next game is on Friday, Nov. 6 when they welcome in Eastern Washington.
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Oregon men's basketball comes up victorious in season opener
