EUGENE, Ore. – Playing one more game on his old home court, NCU senior and former Duck Coleton Baker looked impressive on Sunday night, scoring a game-high 24 points as the Beacons fell to Oregon, 99-59 in a pre-season exhibition contest.
The Beacons kept things close early on, trailing just 10-8 through the first five and a half minutes against the No. 18 ranked team in NCAA Division I men’s basketball. Oregon’s athleticism, however, began to emerge as the Ducks forced 13 first-half turnovers to pull ahead 51-27 at the intermission.
The Ducks continued to dominate the second half, shooting 49% from the field to pull away with the 40-point victory.
In his first game as the NCU Head Coach, Luke Jackson was happy with how his team responded against his former team, one for whom he still ranks No. 2 all-time for scoring. He said, “At the end of the day, we are still 0-0. Our guys played their hearts out tonight and the times when we took care of the ball and were able to run our offense, I was pleased.”
The Beacons shot 29% from the field in the game, finishing with 19 turnovers and just four assists on 18 made baskets. “You can learn a lot more from losses than you can from wins,” said Jackson. “We found a lot of things that we can work on in practice as we head into the season.”
For Baker it was a breakthrough night, shooting 8-for-21 from the field and hitting four three-pointers to lead all scorers with 24. He also matched a game-high with seven rebounds. Senior Spencer Coleman added 13 points and seven rebounds, adding two of the Beacons six steals. Forest Stolk came off the bench to score seven points for the Beacons and six rebounds, including four on the offensive glass. Travis Pacos scored five points and led NCU with a pair of assists.
The Ducks were led by Jason Calliste and Joseph Young, scoring 20 points each. Young added five steals and three assists in his debut for Oregon after transferring from the University of Houston. Damyean Dotson added 12 points and Mike Moser finished with eight points and seven rebounds.
Jackson was impressed with his former team. “This Oregon team will hold a lot of Pac-12 teams to less than what we were able to score tonight,” he said. “They have a very talented group and the future is bright for Oregon basketball.”
NCU will play one more exhibition before starting the regular season. The Beacons travel to Portland on Friday, November 1st to take on the University of Portland at 8:15 pm.