March 22, 2011

Box Score

EUGENE, ORE. - Garrett Sim led four players in double figures with 20 points as Oregon survived a late rally to defeat Duquesne 77-75 in the quarterfinal of the College Basketball Invitational presented by Zebra Pen.

The Dukes, who were down six with under two minutes left, had a chance to tie the game when Sean Johnson drew a foul on a 3-point attempt with 1.5 seconds remaining. Johnson, a 71.4 percent free throw shooter, missed the first, made the second and intentionally missed the third. UO's Joevan Catron, who had 14 points and 11 rebounds, corralled the rebound as time expired.

Bill Clark, whose 3-pointer with 1:55 left and layup with 10 seconds to go cut Oregon's lead from six to one, finished with a team-high 19 points. Johnson had 13 and senior Damian Saunders who - like Clark - was playing in his final game, added 11 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.

The Dukes, who got a 3-pointer at the first half horn from Johnson to cut Oregon's lead to nine, held the Ducks to 29 percent shooting in the second half and 39.3 percent for the game.

Duquesne, which had five more field goals - including four more 3-pointers - than Oregon was outscored 20-4 from the foul line as the Ducks shot 26 free throws to DU's eight.

"We made some adjustments and were able to get back in the game in the second half," said Duquesne head coach Ron Everhart. "We did a great job of executing on that last play to get the foul. I love these kids. They just keep working and coming at you. Its tough on the road."

DU, which went 13-of-28 from the 3-point arc, jumped out to a 13-6 lead and was up 19-15 before Tyrone Nared started a 21-5 run with a jumper. Sim, who scored all of his 12 first-half points during the run, hit a 3-pointer to give the Ducks a lead they'd never relinquish.

Duquesne cut it to 50-49 on an Eric Evans 3-pointer with 14:07 to go, but Oregon built the lead back to eight just over three minutes later on back-to-back 3-pointers by Jay-R Strowbridge and Malcolm Armstead. The Dukes cut it to three four times and to two once before Catron put Oregon up six on a layup with 2:08 left.

It was then that Clark put together his personal 5-0 run to cut it to one.

E.J. Singler, who scored six of his 11 points from the line, hit two free throws with seven seconds left before Johnson drew the 3-shot foul from Armstead.

"We've got a good group of kids," said Everhart. "Hopefully we've learned a lot this year. Appearing in the postseason gave our guys a chance to get a taste of what its like. We were able to go into a tough Montana arena and pull out a win and we took it to the wire tonight. I'm really proud of how this team competed."

NOTES

• Duquesne was attempting to become the first team in the four-year history of the CBI to open the tournament with back-to-back road wins ... all four home teams advanced to the semifinals.

• Duquesne's 56 wins over the past three seasons (21-13, 16-16 & 19-13) are its most over a three-year span since 57 from 1971-73 (21-4, 20-5 & 16-8).

• DU finished 8-7 on the road ... it is just the second time since 1971 that a Duquesne team has posted a winning road record ... the other was in 2008-09 (also 8-7).

• Six of Duquesne's 13 losses came by three or fewer points, not including a six-point double-overtime loss to George Mason.

• Damian Saunders finished his career with 1,511 points (11th all-time) and 1,019 rebounds (3rd all-time and 9th in Atlantic 10 history) ... he holds Duquesne career records for steals (277, 9th in A-10 history), blocks (300, 8th in A-10 history), games played (127), games started (116) and dunks (166).

• Bill Clark finished his career as Duquesne's No. 7 all-time scorer with 1,628 points ... he ranks 2nd in games played (126) and 3rd in 3-pointers made (227).