PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) Shakur Juiston scored on a putback with 14.4 seconds left and No. 11 Oregon rallied from 19 points down in the second half to beat No. 13 Seton Hall 71-69 in Wednesday night’s opening round of the Battle 4 Atlantis.
The Ducks (6-0) trailed 49-30 early in the second half but hung around despite a brilliant performance from Seton Hall’s Myles Powell, who had 32 points for the No. 2 scoring total in the nine-year history of the event.
Finally, with the Ducks having a chance to go ahead, Payton Pritchard airballed a 3-pointer – only to have the ball end up with Juiston underneath for the putback and Oregon’s first lead of the second half.
Seton Hall (4-2) had a final chance after C.J. Walker missed free throws with 5.3 seconds left, but Powell’s long running heave hit only the backboard to end it.
As several Oregon players spilled onto the court to celebrate, Powell ended up laying on the floor after the horn with an apparent leg issue before being helped back to the locker room to cap a wild final game on the tournament’s first day.
Pritchard scored 16 points to lead Oregon, which shot 52% after halftime and weathered the storm when Seton Hall came out of the break burying 3 after 3 to quickly expand a 34-30 lead at the break. Powell drove that attack, burying shots ranging from contested to stepbacks to just plain long – and that had the Pirates tearing through a defense that had locked up outside shooters to start this season.
BIG PICTURE
Oregon: The Ducks will have to shore up their perimeter defense. Oregon had held opponents to 21% shooting from behind the arc coming in, but Seton Hall made 14 of 27 – with Powell hitting 7 of 15.
Seton Hall: The Pirates will have a short time to forget blowing the big lead, while Powell played a heavy load at more than 35 minutes. Beyond his big night, no other Seton Hall player scored more than 10 points.
UP NEXT
Oregon: The Ducks advanced to the winners’ bracket for Thursday’s matchup with No. 8 Gonzaga, which beat Southern Miss earlier Wednesday.
Seton Hall: The Pirates moved to the losers’ bracket for Thursday’s matchup with Southern Miss, which lost to No. 8 Gonzaga earlier Wednesday.
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Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at https://twitter.com/aaronbeardap
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More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25
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