The Trojans made a valiant comeback, but fell just short on Matthew Knight Arena's debut.
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- It was Oregon's night. From start to finish, the entertainment felt like it was choreographed by Phil Knight and his Nike machine. The first half lacked energy after the roof nearly came off the brand new building during an intensely extravagant opening ceremony. The previously winless in the Pac-10 Ducks started making three balls in the second half and held on late to please the packed house. "Phil Knight's put together an unbelievable situation here and they deserved to win," Kevin O'Neill said.
- As USC expected, Oregon played zone all night, which nullified the "Trojan Towers" inside, despite the Ducks playing an undersized lineup. Eventually, the game turned into a three-point shooting competition, which is not the Trojans' identity. "We went away from what wins for us, which is playing great half-court defense and putting ourselves in a position to win," said O'Neill. "We had a 10 minute stretch in the second half where we just really didn't get our job done."
- The Trojans were down 19 in the second half when they started a 17-3 run to make "The Matt" crowd nervous. "I really commend our guys on working hard and making a game of it down the stretch," O'Neill said about the character of the squad. "When you come back in those situations, you have to be perfect going down the stretch of the game and we made some mistakes."
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