Just a few hours removed from the groundbreaking ceremony for Kilkenny Court at Matthew Knight Arena, this season’s Oregon basketball team made a little history of its own.
Not the good kind, though, as its 87-77 loss to the Arizona Wildcats in front of 8,012 at McArthur Court pushed the Ducks conference record to 0-11, tied with Jerry Green’s 1992-93 squad for the worst conference start in program history.
Oregon (6-17, 0-11 Pac-10) kept to its pattern of playing well in the first half, battling to a narrow 37-36 deficit at the half behind seven points each for freshmen Michael Dunigan, who also added five rebounds, and Drew Wiley. Wildcat forward Chase Budinger led all scorers at the half with 16 points and center Jordan Hill added nine points.
“Coach was happy with us at the halftime,” Wiley said. “We talked about little adjustments in the locker room, but we were happy with our game at the time.”
Things continued to go well for Oregon early in the second half, and it looked like the Ducks’ pattern of coming out of the locker room ice cold from the field and mistake-prone with the basketball would be broken.
A layup from sophomore guard LeKendric Longmire, then five straight points from Tajuan Porter would help the Ducks keep the pace early, as they trailed by two, 45-43, with just more than three minutes gone in the second.
Then Arizona (16-8, 6-5 Pac-10) found its offensive rhythm, going on a 20-4 run to seize control of the game with an 18-point lead, 65-47, with just less than 11 minutes left to play. The lead would grow to as many as 19 points and shrink to as few as eight points late before the final 10-point margin.
“Defensively, we didn’t have an answer,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. “We did battle hard.”
“It feels good to win at Oregon, and I know today was an important day to them,” Budinger said. “At the halftime we went to the locker room and talked about what changes we need to make in the second half. We came out concentrated and controlled the game.”
Budinger led all scorers in the game with 25 points, while grabbing nine rebounds and three steals. Next for Arizona was Hill, who finished with 24 points and eight rebounds. Junior guard Nic Wise added 17 points and seven assists. All three played the entire 40-minute game.
“Arizona has three big-time players,” Porter said. “They all stepped up today.”
Porter led Oregon in scoring with 21 points and Wiley notched a career-high 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting, 5-of-9 from beyond the arc.
“I was happy with my game today,” Wiley said.
Junior forward Joevan Catron led all players with 11 rebounds to go with his nine points and Longmire added 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
The most glaring statistical category for the Ducks was turnovers, as the Ducks turned the ball over 12 times and the
Wildcats capitalized for 17 points, while the Ducks scored three points off eight Arizona turnovers.
This sloppy play on both ends had the Ducks again talking about a lack of “mental toughness” after the game.
“It’s going to take time. Our physical fitness will progress naturally, but our mental toughness we need to get to,” Kent said. “It’s all about confidence. They will come back, get back to practice, battle, and they will get there.”
“We need to keep on believing in ourselves,” said Porter. “We are almost there. We’ve been working hard and we’re getting better. The game is all about mental focus.”
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