The most anticipated battle in the upcoming Oregon-Duke March Madness contest will happen from behind the arc.
The defending national champion Blue Devils have thrived on firing from long range proven by their average of hitting 9.2 three-pointers per game, the best mark among Atlantic Coast Conference teams. Three players responsible for Duke’s high average are Grayson Allen, Brandon Ingram and Matt Jones; all of whom have nailed over 70 long range points this season.
But entering Anaheim’s Honda Center on Thursday, March 24 will be Oregon’s long armed three ball defenders, who are responsible for limiting opponents to a 32.9% average from downtown in the last seven games. Oregon’s zone defense will likely get thrown into the basketball court on several occasions. According to goducks.com, Oregon forces more than 14 turnovers per game and halts opponents to 42.2% shooting when the Ducks employ the scheme.
Duck guards Tyler Dorsey and Casey Benson will be given the tasks of disrupting the three. A potential third defensive option is 6-foot-7 forward Dwayne Benjamin, who told goducks.com on March 23 that he’s seen improvement in Oregon’s perimeter defense.
“We feel it’s getting a lot better,” Benjamin said. “Saint Joseph’s (in the second round) was a good three-point shooting team, Utah (in the Pac-12 Tournament final) was a good three-point shooting team, and we feel like we were very active on defense and kind of had that under control. … I think we’ll be ready for Thursday.”
Tickets for the game are available at TiqIQ.com with hotels near the Honda Center available on Hipmunk.com. Currently, the cheapest hotel rates are $55 with the cheapest ticket almost double that price.
Lorenzo Reyna
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