PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas— Thirteenth-ranked Oregon survived, taking Seton Hall’s best punches and rallying from a 57-41 deficit to score 14 of the final 16 points in the final six minutes to defeat the 14th ranked Big East Pirates, 71-69, in late night quarterfinal at the Battle 4 Atlantis here night.:Our guys were staggered, no doubt,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “To their credit, they did a tremendous job of fighting back. Once we got it under 10, I thought we had a shot.”
For Seton Hall (4-2), which got 32 points and seven threes in another monster performance from senior pre-season All America senior guard Myles Powell, it will go down as an epic meltdown for some Pirates’ fans, who still have bad memories of the final 2:30 of the home loss to Michigan State. But this is only November and, for 34 minutes, the Hall threw haymakers against the Pac-12 favorites in a hard- fought March Sweet 16 atmosphere that became heated when Powell was tripped by the Oregon bench late on a three- point attempt in the first half.
And this team only figures to get better by the time the Big East season begins. .
I love Powell’s game and his courage. But he needs help down the stretch.
He made four threes in 3:11 to start the second half and six threes in a row at one point. But at the end, the Hall seemed to default to Powell throwing up prayers late in the game in an offense that became too one dimensional against Oregon’s high energy full court pressure and Peyton Pritchard’s effective man to man defense against Powell on the Hall’s final possessions after they ran out of timeouts.
“MP left it all out there like he always does, but someone else has to step up,’’ Hall coach Kevin Willard said. “You can ride him as much as you want but someone has to make a play toward the end. Their small lineup really hurt us.’’
The Ducks took their only lead of the second half when 6-7 fifth year senior forward Shakur Juiston, a transfer from UNLV, scored on a stick back layup after Pritchard missed an open three with 18 seconds to play for the game winner. The Hall had two chances to force overtime or win the game, but guard Shavar Reynolds missed a drive with 13 seconds left and the Pirates were forced to foul. After Oregon forward CJ Walker missed two free throws with 5.6 seconds left, Powell launched a desperation three from beyond half court with one second left that banged off the glass as time ran out.
Pritchard led Oregon (6-0) with 16 points and six assists. Juiston finished with 12 points and Walker, who is destined to be a star, had 12 points and five rebounds for the Ducks, who shot 47.2 percent. The Pirates, meanwhile, hit 14 of 27 threes but made only 10 of 32 shots inside the arch to shoot 40.7 percent overall. The Ducks also outrebounded the taller Hall, 39-28,
