GameDay: Ducks Trounce 'Little Brother' OSU in Civil War

Trafton B.

February 19, 2011 - 6:11 PM

What can I say? The Ducks are tearing up the hard court and today's game against Oregon State was no different. Final score: Oregon 82, Oregon State 63. Talk about a blow out. The real story of the day was Oregon making it rain from three-point land...all the long. As a team the Ducks made 13 three-pointers out of 26 attempts. Senior G Jay-R Strowbridge led the team with 26 points off the Oregon bench, shooting 6 of 9 from behind the arc. Congratulations to Jay-R for an MVP day and, while we're at it, Happy 23rd Birthday!

There isn't really much else to say about the game. It was kind of a laugher. The first points weren't scored until a solid three minutes into the game, so the first part was nothing but slop from both teams. Then the Ducks went on their first spree of three-pointers that sparked an 11-0 run in the middle of the first half. Oregon closed out the first half with five made free throws from Singler and Catron making it a 42-29 Oregon lead. Then the second half was just more of the same as Oregon State watched the Ducks drain 8 three-pointers, including a four-minute run where they made 6 in a row.

My favorite part of the game was probably when Coach Dana Altman essentially put Oregon's B-team in during the last two minutes of the game because we'd pulled ahead so far. I think they scored 1 point between the four of them, but, hey, they did exactly what they were asked...just don't blow the game. It was about this time that I learned a few new chants from the Pit Crew as well.

Apparently, thanks to Oregon football player, Cliff Harris, our new nickname for Oregon State is "Little Brother," because we've dominated them in the Civil War, (across multiple sports) for the past few years. We heard "Lit-tle Bro-ther" echoing through Matt Arena throughout the game. I also enjoyed when the Pit Crew started singing, "If you're winning and you know it, clap your hands." "If you're winning and you know it, clap you hands." Then they followed it up with, "If you're losing and you know it, clap your hands," and instead of clapping everyone just pointed at the Oregon State bench. The Pit Crew may be obnoxious, but at least they're clever. Then again, most everything about Oregon sports is pretty obnoxious, so they fit right in.

There were several more miscellaneous enjoyable moments of the game. Ashton Eaton was signing autographs after breaking his own World Record in the Indoor Heptathlon a few weeks ago at the International Indoor Combined Events meeting in Tallinn, Estonia. Our old dorm-mates, Justin and Kenan, were contestants in the Chevron half-time car race. Justin won. Two students in front of us were rocking old Mighty Ducks hockey jerseys, as in the Disney movie with Emilio Estevez. Yeah, they were wearing jerseys for Charlie Conway and Coach Bombay.

All in all, I'm a big fan of the new arena. Mac Court may have the nostalgia, but Matt Arena is nicer than most NBA arenas I've been too. The entrance montage alone made me feel like I was at a Trail Blazers game. Life is good for Duck's sports at the moment. New arena. Ducks are climbing up Pac-10 standings. After today's win we're into 4th place in the Pac-10 and five games back of #13 Arizona.