MBB Recap: Oregon vs Indiana

The Oregon Ducks men’s basketball team played their first ever Big Ten conference tournament game today in Indianapolis. And in true Big Ten championship fashion they covered a comically larger amount of distance to arrive at the tournament as compared to their opponent, the Indiana Hosiers.

In a de facto road game at 9AM the Ducks got off to a bit of a slow start and trailed by as many as 8 points early. However, the Ducks didn’t take too long to wake up and it was Brandon Angel helping to lead the charge as he hit back to back 3’s to tie the game with 7 minutes left in the first half.

The Ducks would finish the second half strong going on a 13-2 run over the final 4 minutes and take an 8 point lead into the locker room.

But in all to familiar sight for Ducks fans this season the Ducks just stopped playing for a couple of minutes to start the second half and Indiana was able to immediately get back into the game to start the 2nd half and cut the lead back down to 2. For the majority of the second half Oregon’s lead would fluctuate from 2-7 points.

TJ Bamba was a big offensive driver and this 3 was one of a handful of baskets that was helping to keep the Hoosiers at bay.

Not completely dissimilar from the game these two played in Eugene on Senior night Oregon was able to pull away late thanks to some strong play in the final quarter of the game, including a 9-0 run to go up 11 with 2 and half minutes left.

That would be curtains for the Hoosiers as the Ducks were able to secure a 13 point road, I mean round of 16, victory. Nate Bittle didn’t have the strong scoring day we have grown accustomed too but his presence was still massive as he picked up 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks.

Leading the Ducks in scoring for the day was Jackson Shelstad, T.J Bamba, and Brandon Angel who all went into double figures and combined for 49 of Oregon’s 72 points.

The win over Indiana should almost guarantee the Ducks are no worse than a 5 seed for the NCAA tournament as the rest of the Big Ten Tournament the Ducks should be exclusively facing teams that will boost their resume and can’t really hurt their resume.

The first such game will be tomorrow against Big Ten Regular season champ Michigan State again at 9AM pacific time on the BTN.

Let’s show this conference what Dana March is all about! As always Go Ducks!