Dana Altman’s debut at Oregon was far from easy, but the Ducks survived a major scare to defeat North Dakota State 97-92 in overtime in the BTI Invitational at Oregon Friday night.

Altman, who spent his last 16 years building Creighton into one of the nation’s top mid-major programs, took over at Oregon after last season.

Joevan Catron led Oregon with 27 points and hit a jumper in overtime to give the Ducks the lead for good with 20 seconds to play.

Even though the Ducks were huge favorites in the contest, North Dakota State, which finished 11-18 last season and lost in the first round of the Summit League tournament, led 49-47 at the half.

North Dakota State trailed 87-86 with 3:21 to play when Michael Tveidt made a rare four-point play to give the Bisons a 90-87 lead. Tveidt scored again later and North Dakota State led 92-89.

Oregon reclaimed the lead 94-92 with 1:12 to play but the Bisons tied the game on a pair of free throws by Nate Zachstrow with 34 seconds left.

The Bisons scored the first four points of overtime, and didn’t trail until Joevan Catron’s jumper with 20 seconds left.

Tveidt led the Bisons with 27 points.