Tyrone Riley IV put up 17 points to lead five Oregon players in double figures in points, and the Ducks opened the men’s basketball season with an 87-69 win over Montana on Monday in Eugene, Ore.
Malique Ewin added 14 points and 13 rebounds, Andrew Meadow scored 14 points and Fred Payne had 12 points and five assists for Oregon.
The key stretch of the game came in the second half, starting with a blocked layup from Riley at one end that led to a transition layup from Taylor Bol Bowen. Then Bol Bowen fed Riley for a lob dunk for a 70-59 Oregon lead.
Riley blocked another Montana layup attempt, setting up Payne’s layup on the fastbreak and a 13-point Oregon lead with 7:26 to play. That was enough for the Ducks to put away Montana.
The Grizzlies got 19 points each from Jordan Clark and Jalen Brown, plus 14 from Tyler Thompson.
Oregon led 40-31 at halftime after trailing 12-4 through the first three minutes of the game. The Ducks, with a more up-tempo style of play as opposed to the slower pace of last season’s team, played 12 players in the first half as interim head coach Tony Stubblefield took a look at almost his entire roster.
Four dunks highlighted the first half for the Ducks, who went on a 21-2 run to take control of the game midway through the period.
Sean Stewart, one of few returning Oregon players from last season, had two of those dunks, Boise State transfer Meadow had a putback slam and Pharaoh Compton’s one-handed tomahawk jam off a feed from Bol Bowen with 9:28 to play in the half gave Oregon a 24-14 lead.
Compton (San Diego State) and Meadow are two of nine transfers on the Oregon roster.
The Ducks led by as much as 11 in the first half and were up 53-38 just over four minutes into the second, but Clark tied the game at 57 with a 3-pointer at the 10:41 mark, capping a 14-2 surge. Oregon responded with a 15-2 run to take over the game for good.
Wei Lin, a contributor for Oregon last season, scored 10 points off the bench, including a 3-pointer with 3:22 to play to give the Ducks an 83-67 lead.
Montana made 13 of 30 (43.3%) from 3-point range, while Oregon went 5 of 11 (45.5%) from long distance.