The Arizona Wildcats used 11 straight points from freshman Derrick Williams to begin the second half as they pulled away for the 70-57 victory over the visiting Oregon Ducks last night in Tucson, Ariz. Williams led all scorers with 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field to go along with his six rebounds and three assists.
The Wildcats completed the season sweep over the Ducks with the win, dropping Oregon to 12-11 overall on the year and 4-7 in conference play.
After scoring the initial first point of the game on Williams’ free throw, Arizona (13-11, 7-5 Pacific-10 Conference) trailed for most of the next 9:05 before regaining the 17-16 lead, which they never gave up. Both teams exchanged a pair of three pointers to end the half with the Wildcats leading 36-28.
“It was a great start,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “I just thought we really, really had a chance to put them in a hole here at home.”
From there, Williams took over. Scoring 10 of his 20 points in the paint, Williams got several strong passes from guards Kyle Fogg and Nic Wise. Fogg finished the night with a game-high eight assists, while Wise finished with two assists to go along with his 10 points and four rebounds.
Sophomore forward Jeremy Jacob had another strong outing for the Ducks, converting on the double-double as he scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Fellow sophomore Teondre Williams had a much-needed strong night off the bench for Oregon, coming in and scoring 10 points to go along with his five rebounds. Arizona’s Lamont Jones played a key role off the bench for the home team, scoring 11 points and pulling six boards during his limited action.
Oregon’s shooting woes continued however, as they shot just 38.6 percent (22-of-57) on the night, while giving up a plethora of easy buckets around the rim en route to a 46.7 percent (28-of-60) shooting effort from Arizona. The Ducks also lost the rebounding battle by a count of 35 to 32, though they won the turnover battle 15-16.
“I just felt like we really hurt ourselves offensively,” Kent continued. “The plays were there to be made tonight.”
Neither team had a great night from the charity stripe, with the Wildcats finishing at 9-of-13 and the Ducks hitting on just 8-of-15. It wasn’t until the 17:47 mark of the second half that Oregon even reached the free-throw line, but at that point the momentum had all but left the Ducks. Kent added that the Ducks lack of on-ball defense helped the Wildcats tremendously on offense.
“We gave Arizona confidence in my opinion by not putting pressure on the basketball,” he said.
The Ducks will try to rebound from their second-straight loss when they take on the Arizona State Sun Devils (17-8, 7-5 Pac-10) on Sunday afternoon.
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