Eastern Washington at Oregon: 2018-19 college basketball game preview
By Connor Hope
In a game between two teams from the Pacific Northwest, is an Oregon victory guaranteed or can Eastern Washington steal one on the road?
Who: Eastern Washington Eagles at Oregon Ducks
Arena: Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, OR
TV Schedule: Friday, Nov. 9, 6:00 p.m. PT – Pac-12 Network
On Nov. 9, the Eastern Washington Eagles will travel to Eugene to take on the No. 14 Oregon Ducks on the back half of a tough two-game road trip. With both teams expecting to compete at the top of their respective conferences, this game can go a long way in developing their young talent.
Oregon, the preseason Pac-12 favorite, opened its season with an 84-57 victory over the Portland State Vikings. The Ducks were led by junior point guard Payton Pritchard, who scored 22 points on 6-for-7 shooting. Freshman star Bol Bol made his highly anticipated debut as well, scoring 12 points and securing 12 rebounds.
Despite the overwhelming victory, there were a few areas that the Ducks will need to work on moving forward. One area that needs work is the turnover struggles of Pritchard and Bol. The two combined for nine of Oregon’s 14 turnovers, and Pritchard only recorded 3 assists in the effort.
The Ducks will also need to improve their work on the boards, as they were outrebounded 38-41 despite Bol’s presence in the paint. This shouldn’t be a huge detriment, as Eastern Washington had their own rebounding issues against No. 16 Syracuse.
Eastern Washington was expected to take a step back offensively without Bogdan Bliznyuk, but I don’t think anyone was prepared for their 34 points on 22% shooting performance against Syracuse. Junior guard Tyler Kidd was the only player with any success offensively, scoring nine points to lead the Eagles.
It is quite clear that this team needs work: they were destroyed on the boards, turned the ball over 19 times against Syracuse, and couldn’t get anything to fall over the zone. If the Eagles aim to stay at the top of the Big Sky, they need to use these first two games and their late-November matchup against No. 25 Washington to identify and address their weaknesses.
This game is tailormade for the Ducks to run the Eagles out of the gym. It starts in the paint, where Bol and Kenny Wooten make it nearly impossible to get a clean look at the rim. After seeing the Eagles struggles from three against the Orange, it is not out of the question to think that they may have another rough game offensively.
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On the other end, Oregon will probably have to work a bit hard against Eastern Washington’s defense, but I still expect Pritchard, Bol and Paul White to put up efficient numbers. In the end, this game has no appearance of being even close to a trap game and the Ducks should be heading to Madison Square Garden with a 2-0 record.
Prediction: Oregon 78 – Eastern Washington 50