SEATTLE — Luke Jackson last won at Bank of America Arena during his freshman season at Oregon.
On Thursday, Washington extended his losing streak in the Emerald City to three games.
Jackson had his worst game of the Pacific-10 Conference season as the Huskies defeated Oregon 83-74 in front of 7,618 at Bank of America Arena.
The forward scored 11 points. He played in just three minutes of the first half after earning two fouls by the 16:49 mark.
Without his control of the game, the Ducks (11-7 overall, 6-5 Pac-10) literally lost control. Up by 13 points midway through the second half, Oregon slowly succumbed to Washington.
“Just coming down in the stretch of the ball game, we didn’t do a good job defensively,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said.
Looking for a reason for the loss? Look no further than the 26 turnovers the Ducks committed, 13 in each half. The Huskies (11-9, 6-6) capitalized early and often, scoring 29 points off of Oregon’s turnovers.
Conversely, the Ducks netted 12 points off of 15 Washington turnovers.
“Way too many turnovers, way too many (Washington) offensive boards,” Oregon forward Ian Crosswhite said. “We can’t turn the ball over.”
Oh, but the Ducks did. Every Oregon player turned the ball over once, with Jackson, forward Mitch Platt and Brandon Lincoln leading the way with four apiece.
“Yeah, it was turnovers,” Platt said. “We had 23 or something.”
Later, when corrected, Platt said, “That’s a lot worse.”
The Ducks committed just four of the 26 turnovers in the last eight minutes of the game, but they were costly. The first came by Platt just under the eight-minute mark, allowing Bobby Jones to score two of his 18 points to cap a 15-0 Husky scoring run.
Three minutes later, Platt committed another, leading to yet another Washington lead after the Ducks had fought back.
The final, almost the nail in the coffin, came with 2:07 left, midway through a 6-3 Washington run that put the Huskies ahead for good.
“Second half, we had way too many dumb plays down the stretch,” Crosswhite said. “When you’re up by 10, you’ve got to dig in and put teams away.”
The final two points of the game came rather ominously. Washington’s Nate Robinson inbounded the ball with six seconds left and dribbled the length of the court before dunking the ball.
The Ducks didn’t like that and said so. Words were exchanged before the teams left the floor.
“That was maybe a little uncalled for by Nate,” Washington forward Mike Jensen said. “But they rubbed it in our face in Eugene.”
And from Oregon’s perspective?
“I just told Nate, ‘You’re a tremendous player with too much class for that,’” Kent said.
On a cold night by Jackson, the Ducks had four players score in double figures, led by a season-high 19 from Andre Joseph. He was 5 of 7 from beyond the three-point line, but also committed three turnovers.
Platt had a career-high 15 points and Crosswhite equaled his output.
“It’s tough to lose regardless, but when it’s in our control, it’s even harder,” Platt said.
In control was exactly the position the Ducks were in with 14:08 left. Four Platt points, sandwiched two three-pointers by Joseph and Jackson, put Oregon up by nine.
The Ducks eventually extended that lead. But the Huskies chipped back.
Jones had three points in a nine-minute span, the third coming on the front end of two free throws made after an intentional foul by Oregon forward Jay Anderson.
“I thought (Washington) really turned the game around when we had the intentional foul,” Kent said. “I have to look at tape to see what happened, but why we would chuck them, I have no idea. The momentum clearly was in their favor.
“To me, this is about senior leadership on the floor. They’ve been in these situations before. They understand it. We had some major breakdowns on the floor by some veteran players we need to clean up.”
Robinson led the Huskies with 20 points while Jones and Brandon Roy had 18. Jensen led all players with 10 rebounds.
Oregon forward Jordan Kent suffered a sprained right ankle early in the second half during a scramble for the ball. He is questionable for Oregon’s game Saturday in Pullman against Washington State.
That game begins at 2 p.m.
“If we don’t defend, we’ll be in more ball games like this down the stretch,” Kent said.
Indeed.