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          Oregon balance sinks Portland 96-61

          Dec 16, 2021
          • AP

          EUGENE, Ore. -- — N’Faly Dante scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds, De'Vion Harmon added 17 points and Oregon coasted to a 96-71 win over Portland on Wednesday night.

          Quincy Guerrier scored 17 points and Will Richardson 16 with six rebounds and six assists for the Ducks (6-5), who were coming of consecutive last-second defeats in Pac-12 games. Dante was 9-of-11 shooting and Guerrier was 8 of 12.

          Oregon has a home game against No. 1 Baylor on Saturday night.

          Chris Austin scored 19 points to lead the Pilots (8-4), who trail the series 51-10. Kristian Sjolund and Mike Meadows added 14 points apiece and Tyler Robertson had 10. Meadows made all four of his 3-pointers.

          The Ducks never trailed and when Dante scored twice at the rim and Eric Williams Jr. drained a 3-pointer they led 27-11 before the midway point of the first half.

          It was 46-32 at the break as the Ducks shot 60% (18 of 30) while the Pilots shot 38% (11 of 29).

          Dante turned the second of his consecutive layups into a three-point play and Franck Kepnang followed with a dunk to push the lead to 68-46 barely five minutes into the second half.

          Oregon won the rebounding battle 43-30. It was 15-8 on the offensive end where the Ducks outscored Portland 18-4. That was consistent with the Oregon's 54-14 dominance of points in the paint. The Ducks ended up shooting 54% (37 of 69).

          Portland shot 21 of 55 (38%), going 11 of 26 behind the arc (42%) and 10 of 29 inside.

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