N’Faly Dante scored 16 points and grabbed a career-best 21 rebounds to lead Oregon to an 82-71 victory over Georgia on Monday in the season opener for both teams in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Series at Las Vegas.
Brennan Rigsby also scored 16 points and Jermaine Couisnard added 14 for the Ducks, who held a dominating 63-41 rebounding advantage. Nate Bittle added 13 points and nine rebounds for Oregon.
Jabri Abdur-Rahim scored 18 points for the Bulldogs, whose lone lead came at 1-0. Blue Cain and RJ Melendez added 12 points apiece for Georgia.
Oregon shot 42.5 percent from the field and was 6 of 15 from 3-point range.
The Bulldogs made just 33.8 percent of their field-goal attempts, including 10 of 30 from behind the arc.
Georgia trailed 54-46 after Abdur-Rahim made two free throws with 13:38 remaining.
Rigsby followed with a dunk and a 3-pointer to give Oregon a 13-point lead. Dante and Jesse Zarzuela added layups to boost the Ducks’ lead to 63-46 with 11:26 remaining.
Kario Oquendo, a transfer from Georgia, drained a 3-pointer to give Oregon a 20-point lead at 67-47 with 9:47 remaining.
Georgia later had Justin Hill make two 3-pointers and Melendez added one during a 10-2 run that cut Oregon’s lead to 12 with 6:58 left.
A short time later, Dante slammed home a dunk and Rigsby buried a 3-pointer to make it 76-60 with 3:17 to play.
Georgia made another push, and Cain’s 3-pointer brought the Bulldogs within 79-71 with 1:04 left.
Oregon finally put the game away on Couisnard’s massive dunk with 15.3 seconds left to end the scoring.
Keeshawn Barthelemy hit a short runner before time expired as Oregon led 40-30 at the break.
Dante had 10 points and 13 rebounds in the first half for the Ducks. Abdur-Rahim scored 13 in the half for Georgia.
Oregon used an early 11-0 burst to hold an 11-1 lead. After the Bulldogs pulled within three, the Ducks scored 17 of the next 20 points to take a 28-11 lead with 8:17 left in the half.
Georgia responded with a 17-4 surge, including 11 straight points, to pull within 32-28 on Cain’s layup with 3:59 remaining.
–Field Level Media
