Shorthanded but undaunted: Oregon men rout UC Irvine, advance to NIT quarterfinal game

Oregon went into its first round game in the National Invitation Tournament down three starters and with the end of the season looking like it was just hours away.

Not even close, as it turned out.

Nothing could stop the Ducks Wednesday night, not the absence of their top three scorers, not an off night for reliable scorer Keeshawn Barthelemy, and certainly not UC Irvine.

Led by career nights from Rivaldo Soares, Nate Bittle and Tyrone Williams, Oregon manhandled UC Irvine in an 84-58 victory in front of 2,431 at Matthew Knight Arena.

"You can see everybody wants to still play," said Bittle, who had a career-high 17 points — all but one of which came in the second half — and led the team with three 3-pointers. "You can see it in everybody's eyes, everybody's emotions. People want to be here."

The Ducks led the entire game, tied their season high with 12 3-pointers and got seven points and 21 minutes from their three walk-ons in what was an all-hands-on-deck performance for Oregon (20-14), which has now won at least 20 games in all of coach Dana Altman’s 13 season in Eugene.

Next up is a quarterfinal home game against Central Florida at 4:30 p.m. Sunday. It’s the second straight season the Ducks have advanced to the second round of the NIT.

"I would've been really disappointed if we didn't play hard," Altman said. "I just didn't know if we'd play that well, and we did play well."

Oregon was without all-Pac-12 center N’Flay Dante, point guard Will Richardson and guard Jermaine Couisnard — a trio that combines for an average of 38.4 points per game.

Altman announced Tuesday that a hip injury and partially dislocated shoulder, respectively, were going to keep Richardson and Couisnard from playing.

He was hopeful Dante could play through an ankle injury he suffered a week ago against Washington State during the Pac-12 Tournament, but the training staff ruled him out as well on Wednesday.

With those three sidelined, Barthelemy and forwards Quincy Guerrier and Lök Wur joined the starting lineup alongside Bittle and Soares.

That group got the Ducks out to a 9-2 lead in the opening minutes and that was basically that. Oregon led 35-22 at halftime and the Anteaters (23-12) could only get as close as nine points in the second half before the Ducks closed on a 26-13 run in the final 7:17.

Soares recorded his first career double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds — well above his season averages of 8.6 points and 4.5 rebounds.

"It feels great, confidence-wise, knowing we had some guys out tonight," Soares said of his performance. "It was next-man-up mentality. There were some opportunities for me and I tried to take advantage of those opportunities."

Williams, a seldom used reserve guard whose minutes have slowly been increasing the last few weeks, also had his first career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds in 23 minutes.

"I thought he played really good, played really hard, I'm really happy for him," Altman said of Williams, who was averaging 2.0 points, 1.4 rebounds and 7.4 minutes coming into the game. "He's been a great teammate and done everything we've asked him to do. Tonight his athleticism, I thought, was just better than the guys they were trying to match him up with."

Performances like those helped the Ducks absorb the loss of Dante, Richardson and Couisnard, as well a tough night shooting for Barthelemy, the team's fourth-leading scorer after the three missing players. Barthelemy scored just six on 2-of-12 shooting.

Overall, the Ducks outshot the Anteaters 40%-30% from the field and outrebounded them 56-44.

UC Irvine was the co-champions of the Big West Conference and had beaten Oregon in November at Matthew Knight Arena. The Anteaters made 12 3-pointers that night but were 4-for-23 from deep on Wednesday, including 1-for-12 in the first half as the Ducks pulled away.

Being without a full lineup is nothing new for the Ducks, whose top six players have now missed a combined 39 games this season due to injuries.

"We've battled injuries since the beginning of the season," Bittle said. "So we know how to play through injuries. Coach was saying we have to have certain guys step up and I think we did that tonight. I think it was just an overall great team win."

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com. For more sports coverage, visit registerguard.com. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon beats UC Irvine in first-round NIT win advance to quarterfinals