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Ducks waste little time in getting upper hand against Holy Cross

Forwards Chris Boucher, right, and Jordan Bell of Oregon stop a shot by Holy Cross forward Karl Charles in the first half. (Colin Mulvany / The Spokesman-Review)
Forwards Chris Boucher, right, and Jordan Bell of Oregon stop a shot by Holy Cross forward Karl Charles in the first half. (Colin Mulvany / The Spokesman-Review)Buy a print of this photo
By Thomas Clouse tomc@spokesman.com(509) 459-5495

Any thought of an NCAA tournament upset quickly fizzled as Holy Cross had no answer to the length and speed of Oregon Saturday and the Ducks crushed the Crusaders 91-52.

The No. 1-seeded Ducks (29-6) played like one and 16th-seeded Holy Cross (15-20) looked like the team that struggled to a 5-13 record in the Patriot League and not the giant killer that won its conference tournament and the First Four game Wednesday against Southern.

“We’re all disappointed that we did give a better account of ourselves this evening,” Holy Cross coach Bill Carmody said. “That’s a very good Oregon team. We really didn’t have any answers to stop them.”

The Ducks had plenty.

Jordan Hill slammed the ball home to give Oregon a 7-0 lead. It took 4 1/2 minutes until Holy Cross’ Robert Champion dunked to get his Crusaders on the board.

“I thought our energy was pretty good early,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “We came out and set the tone early and never really let them into the game.”

The Ducks flew out to a 19-point lead against Holy Cross, which had Robert Champion hitting shots and few others. Champion led all scorers with 22 points.

“We knew they were going to be physical,” Champion said. “A team like that, when you get open looks, you’ve got to knock them down. We struggled doing that. They’re a No. 1 seed for a reason.”

Oregon’s highlight reel included three Chris Boucher dunks, two coming from alley-oop passes, as the Ducks dominated in every category. Boucher led the Ducks with 11 first-half points and finished with a team-best 20.

Late in the first half with Oregon leading 36-19, Holy Cross’s Malachi Alexander looked up at the scoreboard and shook his head. At the same time, Oregon’s Dillon Brooks looked at the same scoreboard and smiled.

It only got worse in the second half. Oregon eventually pushed its lead to 42 points and finished by playing several reserve players.

Four Oregon players scored in double figures. Elgin Cook finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds and Dwayne Benjamin had 12 points.

Other than Champion, Malachi Alexander was the other player in double figures for Holy Cross and he scored 10. The Ducks outrebounded Holy Cross 44-28 and Oregon hit 55.7 percent from the floor.

The Ducks’ Brooks, who scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds, said the team talked about not becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 seed, especially after five Pac-12 teams were eliminated on the first weekend.

“Holy Cross is a great team. I was kind of scared, to be honest,” Brooks said. “We have been making a lot of history this year at Oregon. But we didn’t want to make that history.”