Another Oregon player had the best scoring performance of his career and the Ducks held another opponent to a putrid shooting to advance in the NIT.
Nate Bittle scored a career-high 21 points and had 13 rebounds to lead the No. 1 seed Ducks in a 68-54 rout of UCF in the second round of the NIT Sunday night at Matthew Knight Arena.
Oregon (21-14) advances to host No. 2 seed Wisconsin in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN).
It was the second career double-double for Bittle, who went 7 of 14 from the field, including 1 of 3 from three, and made six of his eight free throws. The sophomore is shooting 52.3% from the floor and averaging 10.7 points and 5.5 rebounds over his last six games.
C.J. Kelly had 13 points for UCF (19-15), which led 15-9 midway through the first half, but Oregon went on a 14-3 run to take control and went into the break up 33-24.
Quincy Guerrier scored 16 points and Kel’el Ware added 11 for Oregon, which opened the second half with a 14-2 run and cruised from there.
The Knights shot 30.6% from the field, including a season-low 16.7% from three. UCF leading scorer Taylor Hendricks, who came in averaging 15.3 points on 48.3% shooting, went 3 of 10 from the field, 1 of 5 from three, and 2 of 3 at the free throw lines for nine points and nine rebounds.
The Oregonian/OregonLive will update this story.
