After a successful weekend against the Arizona schools at home, the Ducks dropped a mid-week road game against an underwhelming Washington State team. After taking a 10-4 lead early in the game, the Cougars took and maintained the lead for the 72-61 win. 

Oregon could not match the Cougars’ energy, and they couldn’t stop guard CJ Elleby. Elleby scored 25 points, going 9-20 from the field. Isaac Bonton put up 12 points and six assists for the Cougars.  Jeff Pollard flew under the radar but had a huge impact on the game, taking multiple charges and putting Oregon in foul trouble. 

Foul trouble plagued the Ducks, especially in the second half as Oregon attempted to close the gap. The Ducks had 15 fouls in the second half and the Cougars spent much of the last 10 minutes of the game in the bonus. 

The Ducks went cold from three, shooting just 2-10 in the second half, one of the major culprits of Oregon’s defeats. 

Even with Oregon’s fouls and consistency issues, it had a chance to come back late in the second half. Pritchard hit a deep three with a little over three minutes left to pull the Ducks to 60-58. However, Oregon completely faded away in the last two minutes, falling behind to 70-58, and ultimately losing 72-61.

There were still some positives from the game. Chris Duarte showed off his defensive prowess and athleticism, racking up five steals. He turned two of those steals into coast-to-coast dunks. Payton Pritchard had another solid game for Oregon. In 40 minutes, he put 22 points. 

A trend for the Ducks this season has been for the team to fall behind before launching a rally to take the lead. Oregon is no stranger to playing from behind, but this time they could not hit second gear.  If Oregon wants to be among the elite teams in college basketball, they will need to improve at controlling games, especially against weaker Pac-12 teams like Washington State.

Oregon will look to bounce against Washington on Saturday.