Feb. 8, 2007
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Tajuan Porter scored 24 points and No. 13 Oregon held on to beat Arizona State 55-51 on Thursday night.
Porter was 8-for-12 from the field with six 3-pointers for Oregon (20-4, 8-4 Pac-10), which scored its fewest points of the season.
Aaron Brooks, who started the game as the Pac-10's leading scorer at 20.8 points, equalled his season-low with five points on 1-of-8 shooting.
Maarty Leunen added nine points and Malik Hairston had eight for the Ducks, who had only one player score in double figures for the first time this season.
Porter scored 14 of the Ducks' first 16 points and had 17 in the first half including five 3-pointers.
But Oregon couldn't pull away until it outscored Arizona State 12-0 in the final 4:45 of the half to lead 33-21 at the break.
The Sun Devils (6-17, 0-12) rallied in the second half. They outscored Oregon 21-9 in the first 10:26, with 18 of those points coming off six 3-pointers. Derek Glasser made four 3's himself, including one at the 9:33 mark to tie the game 42-42.
The Ducks scored the next five points to reclaim a 47-42 lead, and a 3-pointer by Leunen with just under five minutes to play gave Oregon a 50-44 advantage. Though the Ducks wouldn't hit another field goal in the game, Leunen seemingly sealed the win from the foul line, knocking down a pair of free throws with 44 seconds left to make it 52-45.
But Glasser hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final 16 seconds to make it 54-51 with nine seconds to play. A free throw by Brooks with seven seconds to go accounted for the final score.
Glasser finished with a career-high 17 points all in the second half and Jeff Pendergraph had 19 rebounds,