By Tony Solorzano
(Los Angeles) – A potential upset by tenth-seeded Arizona State was barely avoided as seventh-seeded Oregon held on to eliminate the Sun Devils, 76-69, to close out the first day of the Pacific Life PAC-10 Tournament Wednesday night at Staples Center.
The last thing the Ducks (15-16) were expecting, going into the tournament was going on a four-game slide at the end of the season, however a career-high 22 points from forward E.J. Singler gave the Ducks the much-needed victory over the Sun Devils (12-19).
“After coming off those four losses, we came in wanting to play really aggressive,” Singler said after the game. “I thought Coach (Altman) did a good job on switching up defenses and getting us ready for this game.”
The first half of play was a see-saw battle for the majority of the 20-minute period, with the Ducks having to fend off Jamelle McMillan’s hot shooting, leading the Sun Devils’ first half scoring with 11 points, including three from three-point land. However, the Ducks responded with seven of their own, eventually pulling away on a three-pointer and free throw from Nared Taylor, giving the Ducks a 38-29 lead going into halftime.
In the second half, however, the Ducks began to pull away as they opened the half with a 16-5 run in the first five and a half minutes of the second half. Although the Sun Devils got as far back as 20 points, they kept clawing away at the lead but never got closer than seven points down.
“They made a lot of adjustments from the previous two games. They definitely kept us off-balance all night,” said McMillan after the game. “Their players played extremely hard and we just couldn’t figure it out tonight. They kept us out of rhythm and it worked to their advantage.”
Both Singler and Arizona State’s Trent Lockett led all scorers with 22 points each. Lockett hit 10 shots from the field, including one from three-point range; however, he was one-for-two at the free throw line. In fact, as a team, the Sun Devils only went to the line three times all night, marking the lowest number of free throws made and attempted this season.
The Ducks will face second-seeded UCLA Thursday at approximately 6 p.m. Ducks Head Coach Dana Altman knows that facing a surging Bruins team is going to be difficult.
“It’s going to take an extraordinary effort by our guys tomorrow. We’ll need to be ready to go and our bench is going to have to get us a lot of minutes,” Altman said in post-game comments. “We’ll work on a few offensive looks tomorrow as well as some new defensive looks from the first two times we faced them.”
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