Oregon vs. Iona: Score and Twitter Reaction from March Madness 2017

Life without Chris Boucher hasn't affected Oregon just yet, at least on the offensive end.

The No. 3-seeded Ducks kicked off their NCAA tournament with a 93-77 win over No. 14 Iona on Friday in Sacramento.

Oregon was playing just its second game without Boucher after the star forward tore his ACL during the Pac-12 tournament. The squad lost to Arizona in the title game, and expectations were tempered heading into March Madness.

Despite some slow play in the second half to let the Gaels back into the game, the squad looked almost as good as ever in the opening win.

Tyler Dorsey continued his hot streak with 24 points, his fourth straight game with at least 20 points. Jordan Bell added 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Payton Prichard surprised with 16 points.

He finished 4-of-7 from three-point range, helping the Ducks build a big lead in the second half. One of those shots was captured by NCAA March Madness:

Iona provided quite a fight despite a big second-half deficit, but it simply couldn't keep up with Oregon's athleticism. Seth Davis of CBS Sports and Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo Sports noted the problem with the stylistic matchup:

Jordan Washington almost single-handedly kept Iona competitive despite appearing to suffer a nasty injury in the first half. He finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Sam Cassell Jr. added 16 points off the bench.

The Gaels actually looked ready to pull off the shocker in the early going, outscoring the favorite 19-10. However, the Ducks took off from there, pushing the pace while getting tons of easy baskets like this one, via NCAA March Madness:

Oregon's Twitter account noted just how dominant the first half was offensively:

As John Canzano of The Oregonian noted, it looked as though the second half wouldn't feature much excitement either:

However, Iona stormed back thanks to some hot shooting by Deyshonee Much, including this deep three-pointer, via CBS Sports:

The shooter finished 5-of-10 from beyond the arc to help cut the lead from 27 down to 13. Time simply ran out for the underdogs, who couldn't contain the Ducks on the offensive end.

Oregon will advance to the second round to take on the winner of No. 6 Creighton and No. 11 Rhode Island on Sunday.

Either the outside shooting of the Blue Jays or the athleticism of the Rams would represent a tougher challenge for the Ducks.

Postgame Reaction

The first game of the tournament is always difficult with nerves kicking in, but Dillon Brooks appreciated the effort.

"We handled it pretty well," he said after the game, per the team's official site. "We've seen teams can get it going, so everybody had to show up. Guys were confident, knocking down shots, and it was a great first game for everybody."

One of the players who stepped up was Payton Pritchard, who was red-hot from the outside after a quiet conference tournament.

"The Pac-12 tournament I was obviously down on myself; I didn't look for my shot much," the guard explained. "I had a great week of practice, made some shots and just tried to be ready when my number was called."

He and the rest of Oregon will hope to replicate this offensive performance in the next game on Sunday.