Oregon missed out on a golden opportunity to lead the Pacific-10 Conference Thursday after No. 17 UCLA escaped from a sold out McArthur Court with a 56-49 victory.
With a win, Oregon (10-10 overall, 4-4 conference) would have been left just a half game back of conference leader Arizona and in a five-team tie with UCLA (16-4, 6-2), No. 10 Washington (16-3, 5-3), California (11-6, 5-3) and Stanford (9-7, 5-3). Instead, the Bruins hold a one-game lead over the previous four with Oregon and USC (13-6, 4-4) – the Ducks opponent Saturday – two games out of the top.
“It’s unfortunate we had a bad offensive night,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. “It’s unfortunate that we wasted such a great defensive effort, energy game, competitive game, and then with a couple of teams losing in the conference, that really could have put us in great shape obviously with the game coming on Saturday.”
UCLA used an 11-4 run over the final four minutes, but that wasn’t the most astounding stat. The Ducks were held without a field goal for the final 7:52. Following a three-pointer by Brandon Lincoln, which gave the Ducks a 42-37 lead, the Bruins clamped down defensively and Oregon shooters couldn’t put the ball in the bottom of the net.
“We were out of rhythm tonight offensively,” said Lincoln, who led the Ducks with 10 points. “(Coach Kent) said, ‘Offensively, we got all of the shots that we love to get. We just weren’t in rhythm to knock them down tonight.’”
Oregon made 19 of 59 field goals, including only 3 of 17 from beyond the arc. The 32.2 percent shooting was the worst of the season for the Ducks, who also knocked down only 53.3 percent of their free-throw attempts.
“I call it rhythm,” Kent said of the shooting woes. “Our rhythm was just not there. We had great, great shots. I have not been in a game in awhile with that many open shots, wide open shots. I was pleased with the way we ran our offense, we just didn’t shoot the basketball very well.”
Defensively, the Ducks put forth one of their better efforts of the season, according to post Jordan Kent.

“I thought we played a great game defensively,” he added. “For the most part, I thought we did a really good job defensively because they really had to work for what they got. We were really pleased with how we did, it’s just that we just didn’t step it up that next notch in the last eight minutes of the game.”
Oregon held the Bruins to 37 points for the first 32 minutes of the game, which is when the Ducks couldn’t make a shot and the Bruins came up with enough to claim their third conference road victory in as many attempts.
“Our defense is what kept us in the game,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said. “Our defense kept us in it when we really had an inability to score. You have to credit them, I thought Oregon played very good defense tonight as well.
“When you win on the road in a tough place like this you’ve got to have a team that can rely on your defense when things aren’t going well offensively.”
After UCLA went on an 8-0 run to grab a 45-42 lead, Ivan Johnson made 6 of 8 free throws in the final 4:38 to account for nearly all of Oregon’s points. Johnson finished with 10 points.
“As it stands now, we’ve got to win on Saturday,” Kent said. “Obviously you want to protect your home court. To me, this takes away the Washington State win (Jan. 19) in this loss at home. We need to bounce back and hopefully play well and a little bit better shooting the ball on Saturday.”
Searching for seven Oregon hosts USC Saturday at 5 p.m. in an effort to keep its nearly three-year winning streak against the Trojans alive.
The Ducks swept last season’s meetings, winning 90-83 in Eugene on New Year’s Eve to open Pac-10 play and 94-87 in overtime two months later. Oregon’s victory at USC was their final of last season as they lost two days later at UCLA to finish the regular season. The Trojans were the only team to finish below the Ducks in the conference standings as well.
USC hasn’t beaten Oregon since a 91-76 victory in Los Angeles Feb. 2, 2003. In fact, the Trojans haven’t won at McArthur Court since Feb. 24, 2001.
Thursday night USC defeated Oregon State 72-70 in overtime when Nick Young nailed a jumper with eight-tenths of a second remaining. Young scored a game-high 25 points, making 10 of 16 field goal attempts.
The Trojans are led off the court by former NBA coach Tim Floyd and on the court by two sophomores who average at least 16 points per game. Leading the Trojans in scoring are Young, a 6-foot-6 forward, who averages 16.8 points and 6-foot-4 guard Gabe Pruitt (16 per game).
“It’s a must win for us,” Lincoln said. “As tough as this game is and as much as it hurts, we definitely have to come back. The optimistic, positive mindset is let’s get this game taken care of Saturday so we don’t fall too far behind.”
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