Walking into Matthew Knight Arena, a dense feeling of nervous excitement could be felt throughout the stadium. 

Sitting at 12-9 (6-4) in the middle of the Pac-12 standings, Oregon needed a convincing win to prove it was still worthy of making it to March Madness. 

Coming off a three-game win streak, Utah was on a roll thanks to the big man and primary scorer Branden Carlson. The Utes had won each of their past three games dominantly, finishing with double-digit leads against Washington State, Washington and Oregon State. 

The headline coming into Saturday’s game was the health of N’Faly Dante. He had previously sat out the last game against Colorado due to a left knee injury. 

“Dante made a class move in my office this morning,” head coach Dana Altman said. He recalled that Dante told him, “Coach, I’m going to play, but start the same five guys and I’ll come off the bench.” 

“He didn’t have to do that,” Altman said. “In this day and age, everybody wants to start.” 

Starting in place of the big man Dante was the uber-talented Nathan Bittle. Joining him in the starting lineup was Quincy Guerrier, Jermaine Cousinard, Rivaldo Soares and Will Richardson.

Cousinard got off to a hot start, knocking down jumpers in back-to-back possessions to begin the game. 

What had been a quieter environment exploded at 13:33 in the first half when N’Faly Dante laid down a thunderous dunk off a last-second dump-off from Will Richardson. From that point on, Oregon’s pit crew turned the excitement to another level, which game MVP Jermaine Cousinard took notice of. 

“I think my tenacity comes from the fans. We just needed this one,” Cousinard said. “For me, I just needed to do the dirty work.”

Oregon’s defense began to swarm the Utes, leading to invigorating blocks from Dante and Bittle. 

The defensive toughness combined with offensive tenacity was enough to give Oregon an 11-point lead at the half. 

Altman told the team at halftime, “If we rebound the ball better we’d be in great shape. We had 25 points, 12 of which were second-chance points… We did a lot of good things but we gave up too many second shots. A lot of their threes were off those second opportunities.”

What ensued in the second half was nothing short of a dominant effort thanks to the team oozing confidence from their fast start. 

Any time the Utes would begin to put together a run, it would be quickly diminished by Cousinard, who drained threes with the utmost confidence. 

The Ducks were able to take control of the game, out-rebounding the Utes 41-32 thanks to Dante’s long and physical frame. He often outmuscled the Utes’ leading rebounder, Branden Carlson. 

When it seemed that Utah was making a late-game comeback with 1:33 left in the game, Richardson extinguished all hope for Utah, making a deep three to put the cherry on top for the Ducks.

With the win, Oregon now sits at 13-9 (7-4). The next game will be against No. 6 Arizona, who the Ducks beat just two weeks ago.