Oregon 76 UNLV 72 (a.k.a. The Tajuan Porter Show)

Not entirely true, at least in the beginning, but the Oregon Ducks edged the University Of Las Vegas Runnin' Rebels 76-72 behind the torrid three point shooting of freshman Tajuan Porter, who finished 8 of 12 from behind the arc.


It was the Rebels who started the game on fire from outside, I believe that 4 of their first 5 baskets were 3's, and they erased a 7-2 deficit to tie the game at 14. The Ducks got most of their early baskets from inside, most notably (to the CBS announcers at least) by Joevan Catron. The rest of the half was a see-saw affair, with the Ducks having the better offensive balance (and defensive edge, which cooled the Rebels hot outside shooting) to grab a 37-33 lead.


Porter started the second half on fire, one of his three pointers had such height on it that one of the announcers said that "it had ice on it coming back down" (or something similar). The Ducks continued their good defensive effort, combined in part with a willingness by the Rebels to shoot a quick three, to forge an 18 point lead late in the second half, but UNLV forged a strong comeback by both going inside and regaining their outside shooting touch. But, it was just a little too late to achieve the victory, and now the Ducks will go on to face the defending national champion Florida Gators Sunday at 11:40 a.m. (PST) in the midwest regional final.


A couple of things helped the Rebels and hurt the Ducks: turnovers, the Ducks had 17 to UNLV's 8, and the Rebels scored 20 off of those I believe, and offensive rebounds, where the Ducks were killed 19 to 6; some of that was failing to block out, and some of it was down to bad positioning. Still, the Rebels had beaten the Wisconsin Badgers on their way to this Sweet Sixteen showdown, so this was not a team fortunate to be there; they certainly earned their way, and it certainly made for compelling viewing down the stretch when many of the viewers may have thought the game was over. Congrats on an excellent season and effort to Rebel head coach Lon Kruger, your team certainly had nothing to be ashamed about.





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