PULLMAN (AP) — Oregon moved out of the cellar of the Pac-12 standings after dismantling Washington State 71-44 on Sunday night.
“We desperately needed that,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “It was a little bit bigger than a monkey. It turned into a gorilla. I felt good for the guys. We got us a win and now, hopefully, we can build off of that.”
Jason Calliste came off the bench and scored 20 points, on 8-of-10 shooting, and made all six of his field goal attempts to give the Ducks their 30-17 first half edge.
Joseph Young added 10 points and Mike Moser chipped in nine points and nine rebounds to help Oregon (14-5, 2-5) end a five game skid.
Oregon dominated nearly every statistic in the game. The Ducks shot 46 percent from the field (26 of 57) and outrebounded Washington State 43-24. Oregon ended the night shooting 10 of 11 from the free throw line.
“Oregon has a lot of talent, but we have to be able to score points, we can’t win scoring 44, 49 points,” Washington State coach Ken Bone said. “We just need to find a way to make some shots, if not you can’t compete.”
Que Johnson had nine points for Washington State (8-12, 1-7), all coming from behind the arc, and no other Cougar scored more than seven points.
Washington State only made two field goals inside of the 3-point line, going 10 of 40 from the field, 8 of 26 from behind the arc. The Cougars also made just 64 percent of their 25 free throw attempts.
Ike Iroegbu hit a three midway through the first half to bring Washington State to within one at 13-12. But it would be all Oregon from that point forward.
The Ducks finished the half on a 17-6 run, as Calliste scored the final six points to give Oregon a 13-point halftime lead.
Young and Moser combined to score the first nine Oregon points of the second half as the Ducks extended their lead to 39-19.
Oregon led by 34 points (69-35) with 3:06 remaining before the Cougar closed the game by making three throws and two Brett Boese 3-pointers.
