Joseph Young scored 15 points, pulled down six rebounds and handed out six assists as the Oregon Ducks squeezed by the Oregon State Beavers, 65-62, in Pac-12 Conference action at Gill Coliseum.
The top scorer for the Ducks (23-8, 13-5 Pac-12) was Elgin Cook who tallied 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor, followed by Dwayne Benjamin and Jalil Abdul-Bassit with 12 points apiece as the team closed out the regular season on a five-game win streak and victories in nine of the last 10 decisions.
The Beavers (17-13, 8-10) were led by Malcolm Duvivier who tallied 18 points off the bench, while Jarmal Reid dropped in 16 points. Gary Payton II, who had just the second triple-double in program history against Grambling earlier this season, came within a single assist of repeating the feat as he delivered 13 points and 10 rebounds, not to mention six steals, all without suffering a single turnover. Olaf Schaftenaar pitched in with 11 points.
The Ducks came out firing in the first half, streaking out to an 8-0 advantage less than two minutes in, but after 20 minutes of action the contest was knotted at 32-32. Oregon State led by as many as nine with just over five minutes remaining in the half but could not hold down the lead at intermission.
The Ducks owned a 63-58 advantage with just over 13 seconds to play, but Schaftenaar knocked down a triple from the right side to cut the difference to only two.
Abdul-Bassit then connected on a pair of free throws moments later to give Oregon some breathing room, en route to the three-point win.
In a game that featured six ties and eight lead changes, Oregon outscored the hosts at the free-throw line, 19-8.
This was the 344th meeting of the Civil War, an NCAA record.
[SportsNetwork.com]
