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Ducks continue scoring binge behind Leunen

Dec 12, 2007 - 8:00 AM EUGENE, Oregon (Ticker) -- Maarty Leunen was the latest player to lead Oregon's highly-regarded scoring attack.

Leunen scored 23 points as the No. 16 Ducks rolled to their fourth straight win, a 93-66 victory over Sacramento State on Tuesday.

Falling one point shy of his career high, the senior forward shot 8-of-10 from the field and grabbed 11 rebounds.

"Maarty Leunen took it upon himself to score," Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. "He had a fantastic first half and a fantastic game."

Behind Leunen, Oregon (8-1) topped 90 points for the fourth time this season. It entered the contest fourth in the nation in scoring at 89.3 points per game.

Joevan Catron had a career-high 20 points, Tajuan Porter 17 and Bryce Taylor 15 for the Ducks, who shot 51 percent (32-of-63) from the field - including 10-of-26 on 3-pointers.

Oregon did play without leading scorer Malik Hairston, who sat out after suffering a bruised right knee in Saturday's 75-64 win over Utah.

Although they had been perfect in the four previous meetings with the Hornets, the Ducks found themselves trailing, 31-29, after Randy Adams converted a layup with 6:22 remaining before intermission.

Sacramento State's Loren Leath had 12 of his 21 points up to that point.

That was when the Oregon offense went up a notch, closing the first half on a 17-5 run for a 46-36 lead at the break. Leunen's layup with five seconds left capped the spurt.

"I knew I needed to come out and be aggressive and score a little bit more," Leunen said.

The Hornets moved within 50-43 after the opening 1 1/2 minutes of the second half before the Ducks put together another dominant stretch, pulling ahead, 65-47, behind a 15-4 run over the next four minutes.

"We knew it was a matter of time before we hit our offensive and defensive rhythm," said Porter, who had five points during the spurt.

Catron, who finished 8-of-10 from the floor en route to his top scoring effort, added four during the run.

"It was nice to score it at the collegiate level," Catron said. "Hopefully, there will be a lot more to come."

Taylor connected on four 3-pointers and Frantz Dorsainvil had scored 11 points and six rebounds in 16 minutes off the bench for Oregon, which finished with a 46-32 advantage on the boards.

Donald Thomas was the only other double-digit scorer with 11 points for Sacramento State (2-7), which shot 38 percent (26-of-68).