The No. 4 seeded Oregon Ducks were able to overcome the heavily favored No. 1 seeded Arizona Wildcats to earn a spot in the Pac-12 Championship game. Oregon got great performances from Jackson Shelstad and Jermaine Cousinard in the second half to close out Arizona.
The Ducks had tragedy strike early when N’Faly Dante hit the ground just a minute into the game. He was helped back to the locker room by multiple staff members. Without its leading scorer, Oregon had a tall task of finding offense from other sources. Early in the game that offense came from Cousinard and Shelstad – who finished the game with 20 points and 21 points – as the Ducks jumped out to an early 7-5 lead.
“Jermaine and Dante are our leaders,” Dana Altman, head coach of the Ducks, said. “It resonates through the team because of them.”
However, where Dante’s absence was felt most was in the middle as Arizona’s Oumar Ballo dominated inside. He had six points in the paint in the first five minutes of the game and was dominating Oregon’s Mahamadou Diawara on the glass. The Ducks switched instead to a small-ball approach to try and mitigate Ballo’s impact, or at least be able to make up the difference with the speed advantage on offense.
The wheels began to fall off midway through the first half. Oregon went through a scoreless stretch that lasted five minutes, which allowed the Wildcats to jump out to a 14-point lead with a 11-0 run.
However, the momentum shifted a little bit when Dante returned to the floor with just under eight minutes to play in the half. He got fouled to get to the line, then secured a putback dunk a few possessions later to help the Ducks close the gap a bit. Unfortunately for Oregon, the talent gap looked to be too wide to bridge as the Wildcats were able to push back on the small run, holding a 29-16 lead with just under four minutes until halftime.
“Dante and Jermaine, they play so hard,” Altman said. “Our guys just kinda fed off that. But those three, Jackson, Jermaine and Dante really did some great things.”
The Ducks managed to cut into the lead just before halftime, making it 33-23 at the break. Oregon was led in scoring in the first half by the eight points of N’Faly Dante, despite Dante playing just nine minutes in the half.
The leading scorer for the game in the first half was Ballo who had 11 points and eight rebounds while shooting a perfect 5-5 from the field. However, Ballo’s impact was mitigated in the second half. He had just three points and four rebounds in the final half, while not attempting a shot from the field.
Dante’s presence on the boards was missed throughout the opening half, which allowed Arizona to hold a 22-17 advantage in that category. Oregon’s 3-point shooting did not help its comeback efforts in the half either where they shot just 1-12 from deep.
The Ducks opened the second half strong, narrowing the gap to just 38-36 in the first five minutes of the half. The Wildcats continued to do just enough on offense to keep Oregon at bay, but the momentum seemed to have shifted out of their favor.
Cousinard made a 3-pointer to give the Ducks the lead at 43-41 with just over 12 minutes remaining in the game. Some very strong interior defense by a host of Oregon players hurt Arizona’s ability to score, giving the Ducks plenty of chances on offense to get right back in the game.
“That’s my competitive juice,” Cousinard said. “Games like this, I live for and I’ve always dreamed about playing in.”
Shelstad and Cousinard hit back-to-back 3-pointers during a 10-0 run to give the Ducks their biggest lead of the game at 53-44 with just over eight minutes remaining. The Wildcats’ offense went ice-cold from the field during the dominant stretch by Oregon, as Arizona was forced to rely almost exclusively on free throws to stay in the game.
“I just tried not to lose my confidence,” Shelstad said. “My teammates and coaches do a good job of instilling that confidence in me, just to take good [shots] and they’re eventually gonna drop.”
Down the stretch of the game, the Wildcats proved that they were not going down without a fight. Arizona pushed back on every Ducks basket. But, Oregon was able to maintain their lead, although it dwindled. The Wildcats rattled off a 9-0 run to bring the score to 61-57, but time was running out for Arizona to take back the lead.
The Ducks slowed the game way down, minimizing possessions for both teams, and mitigating mistakes that the Wildcats could take advantage of. The result was a 63-59 lead for Oregon with just 30 seconds left in the game, meaning avoiding turnovers and making free throws could be enough to complete the upset.
“Second half we slowed down,” Altman said. “That gave us some energy. Our energy wasn’t really good the first half when we were missing our shots. We knock those down and we’ve got really good energy.”
Shelstad, Kario Oquendo and the rest of the Ducks did just that to bring the game to a close in a shocking 67-59 win for Oregon. The second half saw the Ducks have a massive 44-26 advantage on the scoreboard. Oregon was also able to make up for their rebounding deficit in the first half, winning the battle on the boards 21-11 in the second half.
The Ducks now await the winner of the matchup between the No. 2 seeded Washington State Cougars and No. 3 seeded Colorado Buffaloes. The Pac-12 Championship will tip off at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow night.
