Joseph Young’s one-man surge ended with a memorable dunk
In a nine-minute stretch in the middle of a 79-73 victory over Oklahoma State on Friday night, Oregon guard Joseph Young erupted for an impressive 23 points.
No basket was more memorable than the one that punctuated the run.
The Pac-12 player of the year took advantage of the way ninth-seeded Oklahoma State overplayed him 25 feet from the basket and made a quick backdoor cut to the rim. A nice bounce pass from teammate Dillon Brooks freed Young for a soaring left-handed slam before any of the Cowboys’ help defenders could recover.
Young finished with a game-high 27 points and attracted so much defensive attention that it freed up some of his teammates to finish off Oklahoma State. Brooks, Elgin Cook and Dwayne Benjamin spearheaded a 14-2 second-half surge that gave the Ducks the lead for good and Brooks buried a huge 3-pointer off a feed from Young with 3:46 to go after the Cowboys had cut the Oregon lead to one.
Oklahoma State never challenged again, enabling eighth-seeded Oregon to advance to face the winner of Wisconsin-Coastal Carolina.
Oregon’s victory ensured a 4-0 opening round of the NCAA tournament for the Pac-12. On Thursday, UCLA upset sixth-seeded SMU, Arizona crushed 15th-seeded Texas Southern and Utah outlasted 12th-seeded Stephen F. Austin.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
