Anthony Mathis’ career-high 30 sends Oregon Ducks basketball cruising past Boise State

Anthony Mathis

Anthony Mathis shoots from outside as the Oregon Ducks men's basketball team faces the Boise State Broncos in a nonconference game, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019, at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene. Photo courtesy of Serena Morones.

EUGENE — Oregon basketball has a clear sharpshooter.

Anthony Mathis, a graduate transfer from New Mexico, scored a career-high 30 points via a career-best nine 3-pointers to lead No. 15 Oregon to a 106-75 win over Boise State in wire-to-wire fashion Saturday night at Matthew Knight Arena.

“I got a lot of shots up this week," Mathis said. “Obviously my teammates did a great job of putting me in the right spots and finding me when I was open. Without them this wouldn’t be possible at all. ... You make the first one that’s like a breath of fresh air. I made the first one and I was good to go.”

It was the most points for Oregon since scoring 114 against Alabama State on Nov. 17, 2017.

Mathis was 10 of 12 from the field including 9 of 11 from 3-point range. It was the most 3-pointers by an Oregon player since Tajaun Porter made a program record 10 on 12 attempts against Portland State on Nov. 12, 2006 and the most in Matthew Knight Arena history.

“I thought the guys were looking for him,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “We ran one set for him. Other than that, they were in transition and guys were looking for him.”

The Ducks shot 70 percent from the field (42 of 60) thanks to Mathis, fellow West Linn native Payton Pritchard (19 points, seven assists and six rebounds), Shakur Juiston (16 points, nine assists) and freshman Addison Patterson (17 points, 7 of 7 shooting).

A series that was remarkably competitive over the prior four years saw a rout in what will likely be its last installment for some time.

Oregon (2-0) used three different 9-0 runs during the first half to take a 48-30 halftime lead. That gap only grew in the second half as the Ducks added runs of 11 and eight.

“That kind of distorts things right from the start,” Altman said. “Anthony had a good game and hit a lot of shots. That really gave us some separation. Other than giving up all these easy baskets in the last eight minutes I thought we played really good and really hard and with a lot of enthusiasm. Really pleased until they got it going there late and got 45 points in the second half, but other than that we played really hard and pretty good.”

Derrick Alston had 28 points, Alex Hobbs had 18 points and Justinian Jessup added 10 for Boise State (1-1), which shot 26.1 percent (6 of 23) from 3-point range, including 1 of 12 in the first half, after the Broncos were 17 of 31 in their season opener. Alston was 4 of 9 from behind the arc and Jessup was 2 of 7.

“I thought we pushed out,” said Altman, who emphasized perimeter defense following UO’s season opener. “They did have a couple of good looks but I thought for the most part of those 12 looks, eight or nine of them were pretty good guarding and they missed a couple. I thought we ran them off of the line pretty good in the first half and then the second half we gave them a few. They’re a dangerous team when those threes start going.”

Oregon was without starting forward Francis Okoro after the sophomore was hit by a car as a pedestrian earlier this week. Altman said Okoro, who was on the bench in sweats and did not play, is day-to-day and doing well but sore.

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