WACO, Texas — Manu Lecomte scored 18 points, Johnathan Motley added 17, and Baylor stunned No. 4 Oregon 66-49 in a college basketball game on Tuesday.
The game was part of the ESPN College Basketball Tip-Off Marathon.
Oregon (2-0) asserted themselves early in the contest, taking a 25-14 lead with 7:46 left in the first half, which set the tone for the home side to easily put away the Ducks (1-1).
“It really helps RPI-wise for the rest of the year because Oregon is a team that’s going to win a lot of games,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said.
“So, this is one of those wins that helps you all year long. We’ve been ranked in the top 25 the last nine years. This year, we haven’t gotten a single vote (in the polls).
“I think people out there will know that we’ve still got a pretty good team. Now, you’ve got to deal with handling some success.”
The Ducks were playing without junior forward Dillon Brooks, who is still recovering from foot surgery during the offseason.
Brooks led the Ducks in scoring last season and will be a big factor on offense again this campaign when he returns.
“We do miss him, but that’s just part of the game,” UO coach Dana Altman said about Brooks’ absence.
“We didn’t have anybody step up and help us out there.”
Lecomte shot an impressive 6 of 9 from the field, including 4 for 5 from 3-point range, dished out seven assists and pulled down four rebounds for Baylor, who shot 50-percent from long-range.
Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. grabbed 14 rebounds and Motley added seven in his season debut for Baylor, which was 45.5-percent in shooting from the field overall.
Dylan Ennis led Oregon with 16 points, Boucher finished with 12 and Jordan Bell collected 11 rebounds for the Ducks, who could certainly use the help of their preseason All-American Brooks.
Oregon trailed 33-23 at halftime, but used a 9-0 run to start the second half to make it a one-point game, 33-32 early after the interval.
“Good teams are always going to make runs,” Drew admits. “What was important for us is last year we gave up 28 points off our turnovers, and today I believe it was just 12.
“We really moved the ball, didn’t allow them to get in transition. And then rebounding-wise, we gave up 15 second-chance points last year, and this year we only gave up four. In those two areas, we really improved and really wanted to be focused on that.”
Oregon struggled shooting the ball from long range after going 3 for 21 from 3-pointers for 14.3-percent.
Overall, the Ducks were 33 percent on 19 of 58 shooting from the field, while they were outrebounded 41-30 by the Bears.
“Really disappointed with our ball movement. It looked like we’d never seen a zone before,” added Altman.
“We didn’t get the ball in the middle of the zone, something we did very effectively last year.”
According to an Associated Press report, Baylor is now 4-7 in their last 11 contest against top-five teams.
Next on the schedule for the Bears is a home game against Florida Gulf Coast on Friday night.
Oregon will also be home Thursday night when it entertains Valparaiso.
