Men’s Basketball Game Recap: Oregon @ Penn State

The #15 Oregon Ducks narrowly escaped with an 82-81 victory over the Penn State Nittany Lions on Sunday afternoon. The game was a back-and-forth affair, with both teams trading leads throughout.

Penn State jumped out early with a quick 8-2 lead, but Oregon would storm back and take a 14-12 lead with 13:14 left in the first half. They would build on their lead, extending it to 41-27 with just over 3 minutes remaining in the half. The Nittany Lions would not go away quietly, though, rattling off a quick 7-0 run of their own and cutting the Oregon lead to 41-34 at the half.

The two sides would trade baskets coming out of halftime, with Oregon maintaining a 7-to-9-point advantage for the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half. Then things started to fall apart for the Ducks. Penn State would go on a massive 26-12 run over an 8-minute span, giving them a 9-point lead with just over 6 1/2 minutes left in the game. But, as they have in (almost) every game this season, Oregon battled back, closing the last 6 minutes of the game on a 23-13 run of their own, and squeaking out a narrow one-point victory.

Jackson Shelstad led the Ducks with 17 points, including the go-ahead jump shot with 47 seconds remaining, and Keeshawn Barthelemy added another 15 points off the bench.

These things can never be easy, can they? But, at the end of the day, Oregon added another quality win to their already impressive resume and still look as though they’ll be a major player for the Big10 championship, and possibly more.

The Ducks will get some much-needed time off, with their next game not coming until Saturday, January 18th, vs Purdue.

As always, ‘Sco Ducks.