NCAAB Game Preview - Oregon at Washington

Sat Jan 18, 2020 3:45 PM EST

Even as his team reached the top five in the Associated Press men's basketball poll at the start of the new year, Oregon coach Dana Altman had some concerns.

The Ducks (14-4, 3-2 Pac-12) finish their road trip north on Saturday, when they play at Washington (12-6, 2-3), the conference's defending regular-season champion.

The backcourt of Payton Pritchard and Chris Duarte have combined to average 32.5 points per game, but the frontcourt has been in flux.

That cost the No. 8 Ducks in a 72-61 upset loss Thursday night at Washington State. Pritchard scored 22 points and Duarte added 15, but no other Oregon player reached double digits.

"We haven't come up with a rotation or defined roles and we've got to do that sooner or later," Altman said. "It is still a work in progress every day in practice figuring out who is going to bring it every day and what we can do to mix and match guys and combinations we want to play."

Highly touted freshman C.J. Walker and Shakur Juiston, a transfer from UNLV who was a former JUCO national player of the year, have both missed time recently with injuries. Freshman center N'Faly Dante wasn't eligible until Dec. 14 and is averaging 7.0 points and 3.0 rebounds per game despite persistent foul trouble.

"One of the problems is that we have not been able to spread the floor as much as we typically do because we have not been getting any shooting from the bigs," Altman said. "We have a couple months still to figure it out, but I'd sure it be sooner than later."

The Huskies are coming off a 64-56 victory against Oregon State, despite playing without forward Jaden McDaniels, a former McDonald's high school All-American, who suffered an ankle injury in an overtime loss at California last weekend. Huskies coach Mike Hopkins said he expects to McDaniels to play against Oregon.

Isaiah Stewart scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half and two little-used freshmen, RaeQuan Battle and Marcus Tsohonis, added 11 points apiece.

"Obviously me and Jaden are playing a lot and to see Marcus and RaeQuan come out and do their thing and score in double digits, it felt great," Stewart said. "I was really happy for them."

With McDaniels out, Battle was inserted into the starting lineup despite having played in just six previous games this season for a total of 36 minutes, scoring eight points. He made a 3-pointer on the Huskies' first possession and made three treys, scoring all 11 of his points in the first half.

Battle said he received encouragement from the team's older players.

"They just told me it was going to happen, so expect it and take advantage every time you step on the court," Battle said.

Tsohonis, who was going to redshirt until starter Quade Green was recently declared academically ineligible, played 29 minutes and added three assists, a steal and a blocked shot.

"He showed exceptional poise. He got us in our offense. He played really good defense," Hopkins said of Tsohonis. "The two young guys were key."

--Field Level Media